


Spontaneous Ignition

by Eviko, Tossukka



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 19:19:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4799282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eviko/pseuds/Eviko, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tossukka/pseuds/Tossukka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dating Arthur Pendragon, even when the relationship is fake and the man is his best friend, was a lot more work than Merlin would've expected. Featuring discussions about magic with Uther Pendragon, a magical show off between Merlin and Sophia in the middle of a dance floor, getting fitted for suits Merlin definitely could not afford to buy with his own money, a talking gecko, and growing feelings that might not be as fake as Merlin had let himself believe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spontaneous Ignition

**Author's Note:**

> LOOK AT THE ART. You can find it all [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4799366), but I also have the art here in the fic post. Anyway. The art is amazing, and I love it a lot. <3 Also thanks to mayonnaisetoffees for super fast beta work.

 

 

 

Merlin did not regret giving Arthur the key to his flat every day, but he did often enough. Okay, so it had helped him a couple of times when he had been in a rush and locked himself out, but that didn’t happen that often (although Arthur insisted he had to come and open the door for Merlin every other day, which was obviously a filthy lie). However, Arthur having his key and carrying it around with the rest of his keys also meant that Arthur hardly ever bothered to ring the doorbell whenever he visited Merlin. Merlin was pretty sure that Arthur didn’t abuse the privilege too much while Merlin wasn’t home, he was way too gentlemanly for that, but still, having Arthur run into his flat out of the blue was sometimes very unsettling.

It was particularly unsettling when it happened when Merlin was making himself a cup of tea wearing only loose pyjama pants and an old t-shirt, and Arthur ran into his flat in a full business suit.

“Merlin, I need your help,” Arthur said, and that alone was enough to make Merlin suspicious. Arthur Pendragon never asked for help from anyone, let alone his best friend.

“What the hell, Arthur? What is it?” Merlin tried to ask, but Arthur seemed to have some trouble looking him in the eye and forming his thoughts into words, so Merlin sighed and turned back towards the kettle. “Do you want some tea? I think this is going to be something I need to hear sitting down with some tea on hand.”

Arthur made a sound of affirmation, and soon Merlin gave him a cup and led him into the sitting room.

“Well?” Merlin asked when they were both sitting on the sofa.

“I need you to be my boyfriend,” Arthur blurted out, and Merlin almost splashed a cupful of hot tea on his lap. He managed to put the cup down on the table without spilling too much of the precious tea _which he was clearly going to need_. He wiped his hands dry into his pyjama pants while thinking about an appropriate answer.

“Umm,” Merlin started, and wasn’t sure if his reply should be _yes, I would love to_ or _sorry, but you’re my best friend and I want to keep it that way_ , but before he could say anything, Arthur continued.

“Not for real, obviously. I mean I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend.”

“ _Obviously_? Nothing you’re saying is fucking obvious! Did you really dress up just to come and ask me to be your _fake boyfriend_?”

“No, you idiot! I had a meeting with my father, and I… umm, I may have told him that we’re dating?” Arthur said.

Merlin closed his eyes and counted to ten. Everyone said it was supposed to have a calming effect, but that was clearly rubbish, because all it did was to make Merlin panic.

“Why the fuck would you do something like that? Is Uther coming after me with an axe? Or with paid assassins? Oh my God, your dad probably has some assassin contacts and more than enough money to pay them. I don’t want to get assassinated for violating your virtue when we haven’t even slept together. I’m too young to die, Arthur!”

“Shut up, Merlin. My father just thinks we’re dating! Which is why I need you to pretend that you’re my boyfriend. He isn’t going to kill you, and he doesn’t have assassins,” Arthur said and then looked thoughtful. “At least I think he doesn’t. But even if he had he wouldn’t hire them to kill you just for dating me.”

“But we’re not dating!”

“I know that, idiot, but he now thinks we are.”

That reminded Merlin once again of the more pressing issue now that he knew he _probably_ wasn’t going to be killed on the spot. He could protect himself with magic, of course, and Arthur knew that, but one never knew what Uther Pendragon might do.

“Why would you even tell Uther that we’re dating?”

“Well,” Arthur said and looked shameful. “You know how he’s always pressing me to meet some new girls or new guys and get married and have a family and all of that?”

Merlin nodded.

“He wanted to begin setting me up with some people, and I just don’t have the time for useless dates! I have work, and I’d rather spend my spare time with you lot than some spoiled brat with a princess syndrome.”

Merlin snorted.

“Your dad wants the best for you,” Merlin said gently.

“I know, I _know_. But our visions for what is best for me don’t really meet. So I told him I was already seeing someone and when he asked if he knew the person I panicked and told him it’s you. Which is why my father now thinks we’re dating.”

“Oh my God,” Merlin said and covered his face with his hands. “I should’ve prepared myself with whisky instead of tea, shouldn’t I? But it’s _just_ your father who thinks that, right? I mean, you didn’t say anything to anyone else?”

“Of course not! I finished my meeting with him and drove here. He does want you to attend some events with me though, so we probably should explain the crew that…”

Which was when Merlin heard his phone ring in the kitchen. Merlin went to get it and looked at the screen.

“Morgana,” he told Arthur. Arthur paled.

Merlin answered the phone.

“Hey, Morg-”

“Oh my God, Merlin. Why the fuck didn’t you tell me you’re dating _my brother_?”

Merlin glanced at Arthur who was looking at him pleadingly.

“Who told you that?” Merlin asked.

“Uther did. He called me just now. Why does _Uther_ have to tell me that you and Arthur are dating? It’s about time you did, don’t get me wrong, but really Merlin?”

“It’s a new thing, and I wanted to keep the relationship just to ourselves for a while,” Merlin said. He saw Arthur tense on the sofa. “Arthur wanted to tell you all about it, but I knew everyone was going to react like you just did, so I told him to wait a while.”

“So how long has this been going on?” Morgana asked.

“Umm,” Merlin mumbled. He looked at Arthur mouthing _help_. “You mean how long we’ve been dating?”

“Obviously,” Morgana said.

Merlin mouthed _what now?_ to Arthur, and Arthur looked completely panicky for a moment. He mouthed back _make something up_.

“Umm, a few weeks?” Merlin improvised. “Since uhh.” Merlin looked at Arthur who was imitating playing a guitar. “Since the band was playing at the pub?” Arthur gave him a thumbs up.

“Wow,” Morgana said. “I’m really happy for you! It was about time. Uther was happy too, by the way. He said he’d been suspecting for some time that your friendship might be a little more than platonic. I’m glad you have realised it too.”

“Uhh.” Merlin felt his cheeks flare up. He was happy he could help Arthur, but this was going to make their eventual fake break up a lot more complicated.

“Sweetheart, it was really obvious to everyone. I called Gwen before calling you, and she agreed. She’s really happy for you, too.”

Merlin slapped his hand to his forehead and quickly finished the call with Morgana only to find about fifteen messages on his phone. One was from his mum, for crying out loud, congratulating him on their relationship and asking him to bring Arthur for a dinner at her place soon.

“Don’t these people have anything to do other than gossip and harass other people about their love lives?” Merlin asked and left the phone on the table. “Now everyone, including _my mum_ , thinks we’re dating. And everyone is really pleased about it.”

“I’m sorry,” Arthur said, looking miserable. “I didn’t… I’m sorry I dragged you into this. I will make a round of phone calls today and explain everyone that I lied.”

“Even your father?” Merlin asked.

Arthur’s shoulders tensed.

“Well, I have to, don’t I? There’s no way he wouldn’t find out that we’re only pretending if everyone else knows. He would find out sooner or later.”

“You don’t have to do that, Arthur. I’ll play along,” Merlin said quickly. “I didn’t mean… I will do this for you.”

“Really?” Arthur said. He looked astonished.

“Yeah, of course. You’re my friend, and you asked for my help. It’s not that big a deal.”

“So uh. Father wants you to attend a formal dinner as my plus one next week,” Arthur said. “That’s actually where the whole thing started. You don’t have to come, but I told him that…”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll come to a dinner event with you. It’s a small thing though, right?”

“Um,” Arthur said and blushed. “Not exactly.”

\---  
That afternoon when Arthur had left, and Merlin had been on the phone with about dozen people, he took his gecko out of his tank, opened his computer and found a bunch of notifications on Facebook, congratulating him on his fake relationship.

“Really, people? Really?” Merlin said, talking more to himself than the gecko. “I haven’t even had time to change my status, and they’re already congratulating me?”

“None of us can choose our destiny, young warlock, and none of us can escape it,” the gecko said.

“Oh, you shut up,” Merlin grumbled.

\---

Usually from all the people Merlin knew Lance was the most polite and non-intrusive one. Merlin really appreciated the fact that he knew at least someone who didn’t seem to be that interested in everything he ever did. Sometimes, Lance showed why he was part of the group though. It wasn’t only because he made a ridiculously perfect and cute couple with Gwen, but Lance tended to act as the balancing power in their group of friends.

Which naturally also meant that whenever someone needed a message sent diplomatically, Lance did it for them. It was just not possible to not love and trust Lancelot DuLac which was why Merlin didn’t hesitate to answer the phone when Lance called him one afternoon.

“Hi, Merlin. Are you busy?”

“Hi! Wait a moment,” Merlin said and sent the email he had just finished. “Just doing some work. What’s up?”

“We were thinking of going to the pub tonight. Are you coming?” Lance asked innocently. _Too_ innocently.

It was important to note that Lance _always_ sounded sincere, because he always _was_ annoyingly sincere with everything he did. Whenever he had a plan or had been sent to do something for someone, his voice changed and immediately turned him in. At least to people who had known him as well and as long as Merlin had.

“Why are you asking?” Merlin said, even though he already had a suspicion on what this was going to be about.

“Just thought it would be nice to see you. It’s been a while.”

“We saw each other just last week,” Merlin said. “You’ve been sent to tell me I have no other options than to come, right?”

Lance sighed.

“Yeah. I don’t know why they keep trying to fool you. I told them you would see right through it, but…”

Merlin could almost hear Lance shrug.

“Anyway, are you coming? I’m pretty sure Gwen will start crying if she doesn’t get to see you and Arthur being all couple-y soon. She has talked of nothing else for the past few days.”

“So I still have the option of not coming?” Merlin said hopefully.

“Well, that remains an option, but let’s put it this way: Morgana promised to drag you out herself if you said no, and I think Gwaine is pretty eager to help. I think they might get Percy on it, too.”

“They do realise I have magic though, yeah? My magic is stronger than Morgana’s. She won’t be able to drag me anywhere if I don’t want to go. I really don’t want to hex any of you, but…”

“Which is why I asked nicely. So you’ll come, right?”

Merlin sighed.

“Yeah. I’ll come. What time?”

“Around seven. We were planning to eat first and then continue the evening from there,” Lance said.

“Sounds like a plan,” Merlin answered. “I assume people have also threatened to drag Arthur along?”

“Funnily enough they have. I think they were also planning to steal his phone for the evening just so he wouldn’t have an excuse to _get called back to work_ before the night is over.”

Merlin could almost hear the air quotes around Arthur getting called back to work. Arthur didn’t use work as an excuse too often though, he really did get enough late night work calls without any pretence, but it would be smart to confiscate his phone for the evening just in case.

“You are all horrible, horrible people, and I have no idea why I’m friends with any of you,” Merlin said, but he was smiling now.

“I’ve heard that before. See you tonight then!” Lance answered, sounding unapologetic.

“See you,” Merlin said, ending the call.

\---

The pub nights were usually all pretty similar. They went to the regular place, ordered beer and sometimes food, and then spent the night gossiping away and talking about everything and nothing.

This time when Merlin stepped in, he knew it was going to be different though. He and Arthur were going to be questioned, and although they had come up with some details about their relationship and how it had all began, Merlin still felt nervous. His friends knew him too well, and he was a pretty lousy liar even on the best days. He was sure all of them would see through the act as soon as he was in the same space with Arthur. Even though it was in theory all Arthur’s fault that he was in this situation, he knew he would have to take at least some of the blame whenever their friends would realise they weren’t actually a couple.

Gwen spotted her first and waved at him almost bouncing off her seat.

“Hi, Gwen,” Merlin greeted her with a hug, and then everyone else. “Arthur isn’t here yet?”

“Not yet. He said he’s running late at work. Some last minute disaster,” Morgana told him and hugged him as well after Gwen had released him.

“Huge surprise that,” Merlin said and sat down. At least he could relax for a minute, before he would have to play an adoring boyfriend for the rest of the night.

“Though you are here now which means we can at least ask you to tell us the best parts,” Gwaine said. Everyone around the table was smirking pointedly except Merlin. Even Lance was grinning at him and nodding along with the others.

“Traitor. I trusted you,” Merlin muttered to him.

“Why would you trust _me_? I’m the one who asked you to come. You knew this would be what you were up against,” Lance said.

“Hmph, if everyone is going to ask everything about my love life I’m going to need a pint just so I can get through the evening.”

And then Merlin left the table to get himself a drink.

When he returned he had been hoping that Arthur would already be there just so he could have some moral support, but he was in no luck. He sat next to Gwaine where there was an empty seat and took a sip out of his beer.

After a moment of silence Merlin realised everyone was staring at him.

“ _What_?” he asked pointedly. “Do I have something on my face? Why is everyone looking at me?”

“You know perfectly well why, sweetheart,” Morgana said. “Story. Now.”

“I don’t have a story!” Merlin said.

“Sure you do. If you don’t want to tell us how you ended up kissing the princess, you could tell us other details. Which of you tops? I think that is the question everyone has been wondering for the last few days,” Gwaine stated.

Merlin blushed horribly despite his best efforts.

“None of your fucking business. What are you harassing me for? Go ask Arthur!”

“He’s not here yet. We’re asking you,” Gwen said.

“That is not quite true though. Look,” Lance pointed to the door that Arthur had just opened. He stepped in and shook his umbrella a bit to dry it. For a moment he looked around before spotting them and locking eyes with Merlin. Merlin gave him a pointed look and a wave with his hand. Arthur raised his eyebrows and looked like he was about to walk right back out of the door. With just a bit of magic Merlin made Arthur’s shoes take a few steps towards them. Arthur seemed to get the point and came over to their table.

“Hi, guys. Hey, Merlin,” Arthur greeted and to Merlin’s huge surprise kissed him on the cheek.

He honestly hadn’t been expecting that. Merlin was sure he heard Gwen squeal a bit at the gesture.

“I’m going to get a pint and order some food. Anyone else need anything?” Arthur said. Everyone shook their heads. “Be right back then.”

While Arthur was getting his pint, no one asked Merlin anything. It was the most peaceful few minutes of the evening, since everyone was too busy talking among themselves and pointing at Merlin to actually talk to him. Then Arthur came back, and Merlin just knew from everyone’s looks that he wasn’t going to have another peaceful moment for the rest of the night.

“Give me some room,” Arthur said and sat beside Merlin. Merlin took a look at his face and realised that Arthur had probably already had a hard day. He instinctively rubbed Arthur’s arm just the way he would have done even if they hadn’t been pretending to date.

“Difficult day at work?” Merlin asked him.

“Like you wouldn’t believe. Everyone was forced to stay at office until now. I don’t want to think about that now though, because tomorrow will probably be just as bad. How are you?” Arthur said.

“Your friends are busy harassing me about our relationship,” Merlin told him, looking him in the eye. Funnily enough no one else had uttered a word while they had been talking, and Merlin had to check that they were still in the room with them.

When Merlin turned his head, he realised everyone was staring at them. If hearts in eyes had been a literal phrase that would’ve described their expressions quite accurately.

“They have been doing this staring thing all night now. Can we leave already?” Merlin turned back to Arthur. Arthur sighed.

“I’m pretty sure leaving now would make it worse the next time. So what do you guys want to know then?” Arthur asked.

Everyone around the table started to talk at once.

It was going to be a long night.

\---

When Merlin got his fish and chips in front of him, he was glad that he had something else than talking to occupy his mouth. He hadn’t even realised how hungry he was before now, so he was eating fast and forgetting about everything else than food for a moment.

“Wow, your man’s got quite the mouth on him,” Gwaine commented to Arthur, apparently after watching Merlin stuff fish, chips, and peas into his mouth for a while.

“It’s a good thing you don’t have to care about his mouth,” Arthur said. “But yes, he does.”

“Come on, don’t encourage him,” Merlin complained after he had swallowed and could talk again.

“You just focus on eating your fish, Merlin.”

Merlin did focus on eating, as did everyone else on the table, but as he was finishing his food, he also realised that Arthur was glaring at Gwaine. Merlin decided to not pay any attention to it for now, but it did intrigue him. Gwaine and Arthur had always been good friends. As personalities and temperaments go they were different, and Merlin was probably better friends with both of them than they were with each other, but they had always got along just fine. Gwaine looked completely relaxed and pleased about something, but Arthur was tense and looking up from his own plate every so often.

“You have a bit of something there, Merlin,” Gwaine said, and wiped something off Merlin’s cheek with his thumb. “Just a bit of mayo. All done now.”

And then Gwaine licked at the thumb he had used to wipe Merlin’s cheek while smiling at him suggestively and raising one eyebrow. Merlin stared at him for a moment and started laughing.

He also realised why Arthur had been so tense. Arthur had realised Gwaine had been flirting with Merlin long before Merlin had paid any attention to it. Gwaine, on the other hand, had probably done it just to annoy Arthur. This was actually a lot more entertaining than Merlin had expected. Merlin turned to look at Arthur who had forgotten everything to do with eating and was looking between Merlin and Gwaine.

“You know he’s just teasing you, right? He doesn’t mean anything by it,” Merlin said.

“Are you sure? I think he might mean it more than you know,” Arthur murmured, so than no one else could hear his voice.

“It’s _Gwaine_. He flirts with everyone,” Merlin pointed out.

“Yeah, but he means it when he does it with you,” Arthur insisted.

“Not really. Also it doesn’t matter if he does, because I don’t think about him that way. Gwaine is a dear, dear friend and nothing else,” Merlin whispered to Arthur.

“If you say so,” Arthur said and went back to eating. Merlin had been expecting the tension to leave his shoulders, but when Merlin said Gwaine was just a friend, Arthur tensed up a bit again.

Merlin turned back to Gwaine who was going on with his outrageous flirting which was obvious to Merlin now that he was paying attention to it. In any case, Merlin made sure he was touching Arthur the entire time he talked to Gwaine.

After everyone had eaten, and there were no more plates on the table, everyone started asking more questions about the whole secret relationship business. This time it didn’t bother Merlin that much though. It had been a lot worse when he had been hungry and alone in the spotlight, but now that Arthur was sitting there with him and squirming just as much, it was easier. It was nice to know that he was not alone in the situation and that when he lied through his teeth, there was at least one person there who knew the truth.

He was also happy it was Arthur he was fake dating. If it had been anyone else it would have been a lot more difficult to pretend, but as it was Arthur, it came naturally to be close to each other. Arthur was also a lot better at the pretending thing than Merlin was, because he had his other arm wrapped around Merlin’s shoulders almost the entire time. Arthur was naturally the more physically affectionate one of them, and right now Merlin was happy about it, because it made their relationship look more convincing. It also meant that people were actually paying more attention to Arthur touching Merlin than Merlin himself.

Merlin really, really hoped that his awkwardness and him not talking much and agreeing to whatever Arthur was saying, could be put under him being nervous about his new relationship. It would make sense for him to be a bit nervous, right? Though now that Merlin thought about it, he had no idea how he’d act if the situation was real. So maybe it was convincing enough in any case.

Gwen seemed to be completely invested in their romance for some reason. It would have felt awkward, because Gwen had dated Arthur for a very short time years ago, but Gwen was such a genuine person that Merlin couldn’t think of her having any hidden meanings behind her interest.

Morgana on the other hand… Morgana seemed to be smug about their relationship more than anything else. She was also invested in it, but seemed to be smirking a lot, like she had seen this coming a long time ago.

Though to be honest, that was quite literally what she had said on the phone when Merlin had talked to her on that first day of fake dating.

“Why the hell are you all so interested in this thing by the way?” Merlin finally asked when he grew tired of all the questions. “We’ve just been dating for a few weeks. We’re not moving together or getting married or anything. People date all the time.”

“You don’t, Merlin,” Lance pointed out.

“Neither does Arthur,” Morgana said.

“I date plenty!” Arthur said and frowned at her.

“You really don’t. Tell me the last time you were on a date before Merlin, hmmh?” Morgana continued.

“I…” Arthur began. Merlin turned to look at him and saw him looking shameful. “Well okay, I don’t date that much, but Merlin is right, it’s not like this needs to be a permanent arrangement.”

“Oh sweetie, don’t kid yourselves. You just know this is going to be _it_ , and everyone else knows too. We saw it coming such a long time ago even if you didn’t,” Morgana said.

“She has a point,” Lance told them.

“Oh, not you too. Why must you go along with them, Lance? Come to the right side and fight with us,” Merlin pleaded.

“No fighting going on here,” Lance said. “I’m just telling the truth.”

“I need to get some new friends,” Merlin muttered.

At the end of the day, their friends didn’t tease them too badly. Which was to say that Merlin had been expecting something even worse from the way the night had started. They also gave Merlin and Arthur some space for themselves which Merlin was sure they thought they were going to spend kissing. Instead they spent it talking to each other in low voices, and Arthur calming Merlin’s nerves by telling he was doing fine with the pretending. Merlin could still feel the others watching them, even when they were seemingly letting them spend some time with each other, so Arthur’s words didn’t really help soothe his nerves.

Merlin was the one of the group that lived closest to the pub. After everyone had wished them good night and left, Arthur offered to walk Merlin home and take a taxi from there. Merlin appreciated the company, and the peace he had with just walking with Arthur.

“I think that went better than I expected,” Arthur said.

“Yeah, it was fine,” Merlin answered.

“Are you still okay with this? I mean, I could go and tell them all that it’s not real. It would definitely make everything a lot easier for both of us,” Arthur asked when they were almost at Merlin’s door.

“Nah, it’s fine. I don’t really mind,” Merlin said. “Although… could you hold the jealousy back a bit? At least as long as you know there’s no real reason for it. You know that Gwaine was just messing with you.”

“Yeah,” Arthur said sheepishly. “Sorry. I know that I… I could have acted better there. But I just…”

“I understand. Just tone it down a notch?”

Arthur nodded. Right then the taxi Arthur had called earlier turned onto the street, and Merlin pointed it out.

“Are you going to get home alright?” Merlin asked, and Arthur nodded.

“See you later then… boyfriend,” Arthur said when he started walking towards the taxi.

Merlin grinned.

“Goodnight.”

\---

“So after the other night I’ve been thinking. What’s your stance on PDA?” Arthur asked. They were laying on Merlin’s sofa just like they did whenever neither of them had better things to do. They both kept themselves pretty busy, so it wasn’t often that they had time for just relaxing, but hey, now that they were supposed to be dating, they should also find time to spend together and discuss how this was going to work.

“What?” Merlin squealed.

“I mean, what do you think about touching and holding hands and kissing in front of other people?” Arthur asked. His tone was casual, but Merlin could hear the uncertainty under his confidence.

“Arthur,” Merlin started, and then wasn’t sure where he should begin. He sighed. “I’m fine with kissing and touching, but I think the real question is what is natural for us? I would put it this way: if we were _actually_ dating, would you be willing to French kiss me in front of your dad?”

Arthur looked startled, and then shook his head.

“Thank you. And how much PDA would you actually be willing to have in front of other people?”

“Uh,” Arthur said. “Umm. I think… Look, I want people to know you’re with me, so it’s not like we can go entirely without touching.”

“I just said touching is fine with me. We touch all the time anyway, you prat,” Merlin said and kicked Arthur. “I’m just saying let’s not go overboard with this, because then everyone will know we’re just pretending. Let’s just… be you and me, okay? I don’t think anyone expects us to kiss much in public.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Merlin added thoughtfully.

“Except maybe my mum. She probably _would_ expect us to kiss. Damn it.”

“I’m fine with kissing in front of Hunith though,” Arthur said.

“That’s just because my mum isn’t scary and your dad is,” Merlin muttered. “Also I don’t exactly want to French kiss in front of mum.”

“Okay okay, no French kissing in front of anyone. No kissing at all if we can avoid it. But you’re fine with everything else then?”

“Only if you are.”

“Good. That’s good,” Arthur said and looked relieved.

“One thing though. No love confessions,” Merlin said. Arthur raised his eyebrows. “I mean, we have to break up eventually, right? So if we pretend to be in love as well as dating, it’s going to be much harder for people to believe that we’re breaking up.”

“Yeah, okay,” Arthur said. “No love confessions then.”

“So how long are we going to keep up with this?” Merlin asked after few minutes of comfortable silence.

“Uh,” Arthur blinked at him. “I hadn’t really thought about that. I don’t know. A few weeks?”

“I think it should be at least a month, so that it’s believable,” Merlin stated.

“Yeah. Good point. I think we should go for a month, and then break it off when the right situation occurs. I’m pretty sure we’re able to decide that as we go.”

“Maybe yeah. So let’s start with one month? It might end up being two if there’s no good place for a break-up. Definitely no more than that, though, right?” Merlin said, feeling nervous. Month was already a long time to be 24/7 pretending to date one’s best friend.

“No, I don’t think we have to do it for more than two months,” Arthur said. He sounded thoughtful, and there was something else in his voice Merlin wasn’t able to interpret. Arthur’s voice was unnaturally hard, like he was hiding some emotion, but Merlin wasn’t going to ask. He had known Arthur for too long and too well, so he knew that if Arthur wanted to keep something hidden, he would do it, no matter what Merlin did.

“Glad we settled that then. Do you want to watch a movie or something?” Merlin changed the subject.

“Sure,” Arthur said, clearly relieved that the conversation was over. “What would you suggest?”

\---

Having magic made a lot of things easier, but it also made some things a lot harder. Especially in a society where some people had magic and some people didn’t. When Merlin had been younger, he had volunteered in some organisations that worked with young people who faced problems when they told their families or friends they had magic. There was still a lot of biased attitudes towards sorcerers, but Merlin was confident that they were going in the right direction. Nowadays, the magical folk had the same rights as the rest of the people according to the law, but it still was not an easy thing to deal with in everyday situations. Some employers didn’t trust sorcerers, and sometimes parents still disowned their children once they found out they had magic. There was still a lot of work to be done, but the overall attitudes of the society had turned more accepting as time had passed. No one in their right mind wanted to burn witches anymore, but there were some people who talked against sorcerer rights. Usually whoever was doing it did it for political reasons or for the simple fear of things they weren’t familiar with.

In a way Merlin could understand them. They were just scared for themselves and their children, because it took a lot of work and practice for people with magic to be able to fully control their gift, and there had been some accidents with magic that had got out of hand. With good education and starting the training of magical children early on in their life, they had managed to change the attitudes a bit though. Merlin was now working full time with an organisation that wanted to raise awareness of magic. He helped train magical children to control their gift and gave support to people who had been oppressed for having magic. It was important work that Merlin believed in wholeheartedly.

As the most powerful sorcerer that had been seen in the country for a very long time, he also was often forced to be a spokesperson for his community. He really did not enjoy that part and had done his best to keep his powers hidden from his audience. The result was that most of the magical community knew about Merlin’s magical abilities and didn’t want to mess with him, and most of the non-magical people had absolutely no idea they had a sorcerer walking among them who was wielding the kind of power only medieval warlocks had held.

Uther Pendragon had been one of the people strongly talking against magical folk when Merlin was growing up, but lately Merlin hadn’t heard him mention it in the public even once. One reason for that was probably Morgana coming out of the magical closet. She had been hiding her power far into her teenage years, but out of control magic and her room catching fire because of that, had finally made her seek for magical training. Not long afterwards Arthur had made friends with Merlin, and after that Uther had been surprisingly silent about the subject.

Despite that, Merlin had always wondered if Uther actually truly approved of Merlin or if he just pretended to approve it for Arthur and Morgana’s sake. Now that Merlin was supposed to date Arthur, he had found himself thinking about all that more than ever, but nothing signalled that Uther disapproved of their “relationship”.

Merlin still couldn’t help wondering.

It was only a few days until he would be forced to face Uther and see himself if Arthur’s dad’s attitude was any different than it had been before. Merlin had tried his best to forget about the dinner, because thinking about it made him nervous and made him think about breaking off the deal with Arthur.

So he made his best efforts to focus on other things. Like work. He hadn’t even seen Arthur for a few days, because seeing him made him extra nervous about the upcoming event and Arthur seemingly keeping all calm about it annoyed Merlin even more.

Merlin was reading his work email when he received a text message from Arthur. They hadn’t seen each other much, but Arthur kept on texting him random things all the same. Not that it was anything new; Arthur had been doing that as long as Merlin had known him.

_You need a suit. Morgana is taking you shopping tomorrow._

Merlin stared at the message frowning.

_I already have a suit._

Arthur answered after few minutes.

_She promised to text you the details for where you can meet. Does noon work for you?_

Merlin sighed. He had dealt with enough Pendragons in his life to know that if that was the answer, nothing he said was going to make any difference. He could already almost feel the headache coming. So far dating Arthur had been a lot more work than it had been fun.

_Noon is fine._

He sent the message and knew better than to expect any reply now that Arthur knew he had won.

\---

“And why exactly do I need a new suit?” Merlin asked when he was dragged by Morgana to a ridiculously fancy, tiny shop somewhere close to the city centre.

“Because, sweetie, in case you missed the memo, dating Arthur probably has its perks, but you also need to look the part.”

“But I already own a perfectly good suit!”

“I don’t know how to break this to you, I really don’t, but that’s not up to the Pendragon standards, no matter how cute you look in it. I also assume that Arthur wants to show you off, so you have to look the best you can. Don’t worry, you don’t have to pay for anything. We’ll just put it on Arthur’s credit account,” Morgana said and smirked.

“You’re telling me that Arthur has a _fucking tab_ in this shop?” Merlin said and stopped in front of the shop door, refusing to go in.

Morgana shrugged.

“What can I say? Your boyfriend likes nice clothes, and they make them nice here.”

“And by nice you mean expensive, right?” Merlin frowned. Morgana shrugged again.

“Why do you even care? I just told you you’re not paying for any of it,” she said as she opened the door.

“Bloody Pendragons,” Merlin muttered and followed Morgana inside.

\---

“Good afternoon, I’m here to get Arthur Pendragon’s partner fitted for eveningwear?”

Merlin stopped paying attention to the conversation at the point where Morgana started talking about dress codes and whatnot with the salesperson. Instead he walked around the shop and looked at the trousers and dinner jackets and dress shirts. He couldn’t see any price labels in any of the products which probably meant that if one had to ask for the price, they wouldn’t be able to afford it. So bloody typical that Arthur would shop in a place like this.

“Find anything you like?” Morgana asked when she got to him. She was followed by a lady who was holding a tape measure. Merlin just shrugged and didn’t tell her that he couldn’t really tell the difference between any of the jackets.

“Oh my, you are a gorgeous thing, aren’t you?” the saleswoman said. She was looking Merlin up and down with a calculating look in her eyes. She walked around him and automatically Merlin straightened his back. He felt his cheeks heat up under the scrutiny.

“I think I have a pretty good idea what we’re going to get you. Let’s get you measured up then, shall we?” the lady told him and began to walk towards the fitting rooms. It took one forceful push from Morgana, before Merlin realised that he was expected to follow her. He looked at Morgana pleadingly.

“Do I have to?”

“Yes. Stop being a whinebaby. After we’re done with you, you will look absolutely gorgeous, I promise.”

\---

After the saleslady had taken Merlin’s measurements, Merlin was standing in the fitting booth in a dress shirt and his own trousers while the lady was busying herself collecting different suits for Merlin to try on. Morgana was still smirking at him with a gleam in her eyes.

“By the way, why did I have to come shopping with _you_?” Merlin asked. “I think Arthur has a point; you’re clearly evil.”

Morgana ignored his comment but answered the question.

“Because Arthur knows my taste is better than his, and he’s giving a treat both to himself and me this way? I get to watch you squirm while dressed up, and he gets to wait until the evening of the party to see you in whatever we got you.”

Merlin raised his eyebrows.

“Sweetie, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re a very handsome man and Arthur’s date and whatever you’re wearing is going to take his eyes out and probably make him drool a little. It’s a bit like making him wait to unwrap a gift.”

The insinuation of _that_ made Merlin blush horribly. He had to remind himself that there was not going to be _unwrapping_ of any kind at the end of the evening, because it was _all just pretend_ , but of course Morgana didn’t know that, so Merlin forgave her the innuendo.

Although now the idea of Arthur undressing him out of one of these horribly posh suits was in his head, so maybe he shouldn’t forgive her that easily. The whole thought was completely out of line, and Merlin should erase the mental image of him and Arthur having sex right this instant. Arthur was his best friend, and this whole fake dating thing would end up destroying their friendship, unless Merlin stopped having these thoughts.

The saleslady returning with armful of clothes brought Merlin back into where he was and what he was supposed to do next. Both women beamed at him when he was given first suit of many. Merlin groaned and decided that it was easier not to fight it.

For such a tiny shop, there were a lot of clothes to choose from. After what felt like an hour, Merlin wasn’t even paying attention to colours or cuts anymore. He just took a new suit, changed the trousers and the jacket, stepped outside the fitting booth to get told that it was not _quite_ the right choice and then did the same with the next suit.

Until finally…

“Oh wow,” the saleslady said, and Morgana raised from her seat.

“Merlin, could you turn around?” Morgana asked, and Merlin did as he was told, as he had done with the other suits.

“Oh yes, this is it. It needs to be taken in from the waist though,” Morgana said approvingly.

Hearing those words made Merlin break out of his haze.

“You mean I don’t need to do this anymore? Thank God,” Merlin said.

“Listen, Merlin, did you actually look into the mirror in the booth?” Morgana asked.

“Um… no?” Merlin admitted. He had ignored his reflection most of the fitting, because he had assumed his uncultured opinion on any of the suits hardly even mattered.

Morgana took him to a full length mirror and set Merlin in front of it.

Merlin had to admit that this one really looked good on him. It was black, but somehow made his limbs look longer than they did in jeans and shirt or even the suit that he already owned. The saleslady was busying herself around him, pulling the cloth of the suit, fastening pins on the cloth and talking about how Merlin’s date was going to _absolutely love_ this choice.

Finally, _finally_ , maybe fifteen minutes later Merlin was back in his own clothes. The saleslady was having a chat with Morgana and promised to have the suit ready to be picked up by tomorrow. She also had apparently made a note of Merlin’s measurements just so they would have them ready whenever Merlin needed more clothes.

Merlin had to bite his lip to keep from saying his relationship with Arthur was not going to be a long-term thing.

“So is there a reason that can’t be done with magic?” Merlin asked when they were standing outside the shop again.

“Well, clothes just look better when one actually tries them on. I mean, the tailoring could be done with magic for all I know, but clothes look different on everyone, so magic doesn’t really help with it. Although now that we have your style figured out, the next time it won’t be as time consuming. Also trying the clothes on is part of the fun.”

“You call that _fun_?” Merlin asked.

“Yes, but I admit shopping is also pretty exhausting if you’re not used to it,” Morgana said. “Now, would you like to have some lunch? I’m buying.”

They started talking about other things after that and slowly Merlin began to remember why Morgana was a good friend after all (despite being a bit evil).

And to be honest, even with all his complaining, Merlin couldn’t help but wonder what Arthur would be wearing for the dinner.

\---

Merlin was late, late, _late_ when Arthur came knocking on his door, ready to give him a ride for the dinner.

“Sorry, I’ll be ready in a second,” Merlin told him after he had opened the door wearing only the dress shirt and boxer shorts. Arthur sighed and moved into the sitting room. He opened a newspaper and read while Merlin busied himself with dressing up.

“Okay, how do I look?” Merlin said when he had the suit on, and he had managed to pull his too fancy designer shoes (that Morgana had also insisted on buying for him) on. He turned around slowly to show Arthur what they had bought and heard Arthur swallow and drop the paper on the sofa.

“You look… fine to me. You need to do something with your hair though,” Arthur said, sounding strangled.  
“Come over here.”

Arthur pulled him into the bathroom and did something to Merlin’s hair, so that it looked less like a bird’s nest and more as if Merlin had just been shagged in a closet.

“Yeah, you’re ready,” Arthur said and looked Merlin from head to toes. “Morgana knows her suits. And shoes.”

Merlin shrugged. Now he had some time to take in what Arthur was wearing. It looked pretty similar to his business suits but brought out his features clearer, and the lines of the suit made his shoulders look great. This fake dating business was going to be fantastic from now on, because Merlin was going to go out with his best friend who just happened to be rich and hot, and faking it was so not going to be a problem.

Not that Merlin was going to say that aloud, because it would just make Arthur horribly smug.

“Are we going then? I think we’re going to be late,” Merlin pointed out finally.

Arthur looked at the time.

“Shit. So we are,” he swore.

He muttered something about useless fake boyfriends who made him late for things as he shooed Merlin out of the door.

\---

Merlin was just starting to appreciate what it meant to be Arthur Pendragon’s date when he stepped into the dining hall. There had been a cocktail thing before the dinner, and everyone had been acting extra nice towards him all through of it. Of course Arthur was staking a claim by keeping his hand on Merlin’s lower back and letting him go in before him, so that no one in the room had a question in their minds about who Arthur had come with. Merlin got attention from people who wouldn’t have even noticed him before, and it was all very, very confusing.

There had been one or two sorcerers there as well, and they were probably the only people who actually paid attention to Merlin as Merlin and not as Arthur Pendragon’s date. It was easy for Merlin to feel the magical folk in a crowd of people, because magic always left something Merlin could sense in the air. It was almost like a faint scent, but Merlin felt it in his own core of magic and not as a physical sensation. Both Arthur and Morgana were talking to people Merlin didn’t know, so Merlin decided to have a look around on his own. He also didn’t really want to get in conversations with other wizards now that he was once again feeling nervous about meeting Uther Pendragon.

Until now Merlin had avoided Arthur’s father, and he had expected that Arthur would be with him, when they finally met. However, he stepped into the dining hall to have a look around which was when he spotter Uther already on his place in a table with a glass of red wine in front of him. He raised his hand to greet Merlin, and Merlin knew he had no other option than to go and say hello.

“Good evening, Mr Pendragon,” Merlin said and sat down.

“Evening, Merlin. Where did you leave my son?”

“Arthur’s talking to some people. Morgana too. I don’t really know anyone else here,” Merlin confessed.

“Ah,” Uther said. “Don’t worry about that. You will after you’ve been to number of these events.”

“What about you, Mr Pendragon? Why aren’t you out there making business?” Merlin asked, because he had expected Uther Pendragon to be there even now, like his children were.

“Come now, Merlin, we’re practically family. None of that Mr Pendragon business.”

“Um,” Merlin made a sound. “We’re not getting _married_ , Arthur and I. We’re just dating.”

“For now. Give it some time. Be that as it may, you should call me Uther,” Uther said.

“Oh. Okay then,” Merlin said, so surprised about the familiarity that he forgot to object the idea of Arthur and him getting married.

“Also, you clearly haven’t been enough in these circles if you think I have to be out there to make business. Usually the business comes to me. Ah, Cenred, how’s the family then?” Uther said to the man who was walking towards their table. “Have you met Arthur’s partner, Merlin Emrys?”

Merlin greeted Cenred and watched fascinated how Uther managed to pry information on both Cendred’s personal and professional issues during the short discussion he had with the man. The pair even seemed to come into some sort of conclusion, and Merlin was pretty sure that both of them would have a lot of new things to tell their personal assistants after the night was over. It was like an art form to watch Uther discuss without a doubt important matters in such a casual tone.

“Where were we?” Uther asked Merlin, after Cenred left their company.

“Wow, you weren’t joking when you said business comes to you in these things,” Merlin couldn’t help saying.

“I never joke about business,” Uther said, and then turned the discussion to more everyday matters. When Arthur found them talking about local politics (Uther had a lot of inside information, and Merlin found himself wondering once again about his possible assassin connections) after ten minutes or so, Merlin had decided that Uther Pendragon wasn’t actually that scary after all. He was very pleasant company, as long as they weren’t talking about magic, and it seemed that they were both desperate to avoid that topic of conversation.

“Good evening, father. Hey, Merlin,” Arthur said and put his hand briefly on Merlin’s shoulder. Merlin turned towards him and grinned, and Arthur took a seat next to Merlin.

Merlin hadn’t really spent any time with Uther before the dinner, and much less shared a meal with the man. But he had always had an idea in his head about the dynamics in the Pendragon family. When Morgana joined them in the table the dynamics shifted just a bit again. Merlin’s image of the Pendragon family dinners was formed based on Arthur’s and Morgana’s sometimes very different descriptions of them. Of course the reason for the different views was how differently they viewed Uther and what their relationships were like. Arthur and Morgana were like any siblings who were fiercely protective of one another, but also liked a bit of teasing and wanted to know way too much about each other’s business. Arthur had always admired his father, but as he had gotten older he had realised he was his own man and didn’t want to do things exactly like Uther always had. Arthur held Uther on some kind of a pedestal that had admittedly been getting lower and lower during the years and funnily enough Arthur growing up and starting to make his own life choices had made Uther respect him more. Morgana on the other hand had always been just one step away from walking out of the family, although she wasn’t as rebellious as she had been as a teenager anymore. She and Uther shared a tense but affectionate relationship. As people they were either so similar or so different that it was almost impossible for them to ever fully trust each other or confide in each other.

As family dynamics went, the Pendragons in the same table were always just one wrongly put word away from starting the World War III. It was fascinating to follow how they exchanged information. It was never just telling something to one’s family, but always calculating how any information could be used against one another in any other situation. Merlin had a feeling that if he was really part of this family, he would spend a lot of time talking down any of the three; he could sense that all of them had had serious fights with both of the others at some point of their lives. Somehow the Pendragons seemed to hold back any feelings and opinions now that they were in public and with Merlin sitting in the same table, and the discussion during the meal moved on a much more general level than Merlin would’ve expected.

Sometimes when the discussion turned to something that interested Merlin, one or all of the Pendragons suddenly changed the subject. Once or twice Merlin saw a fleeting shadow of pain on Arthur’s face before the subject was changed.

Merlin assumed that those topics were ones that had been argued over between the three of them before, so Merlin didn’t press on the matter. Merlin imagined that having dinner with any two of them on their own would be a much calmer experience, although he only had evidence about dinners with Morgana and Arthur. Luckily, he didn’t have to be the one to talk much, unless one of the others asked him a question.

Towards the end of the meal Uther turned to talk to Merlin again.

“Merlin, do you have any plans for Wednesday next week?”

“Umm, I don’t think so?” Merlin said alarmed. He first thought about coming up with some made up plans, but he wanted to know what was being asked of him, before he would outright refuse anything Uther might suggest.

“Good. I would like to have dinner with you and Arthur. A little bit less formal event at my house. Get to know you a bit better,” Uther said. Merlin had to hold himself back so that he wouldn’t sigh of relief. Dinners were alright.

As long as no assassins were involved.

“I’d like that,” Merlin said. “Arthur, do you have any plans then?”

Arthur took out his phone to check his schedule.

“No, not that I know of,” Arthur said after checking the date. “Around seven o’clock?”

“That sounds acceptable,” Uther nodded. “Now, I need to go talk to some people before leaving. It was a pleasure to meet you, Merlin, and we will see each other next week then. Enjoy the rest of the evening.”

Uther left his seat, and somehow Merlin felt that both Morgana and Arthur relaxed a bit as soon as Uther was out of sight. Merlin had expected that he’d be the tense one during the dinner, but it had clearly not been the case.

“You alright?” Merlin asked Arthur and touched his leg.

“Yes. Didn’t expect him to invite us for a dinner this soon, but…” Arthur shrugged. “Anyway, you heard what he said. We should go and enjoy the party while it lasts.”

“Arthur, I don’t know anyone here except you and Morgana,” Merlin said.

“Don’t worry. I’ll introduce you to some people.”

\---

Apparently _some people_ meant half of the guests to Arthur. Merlin had smiled so much that his cheeks were starting to ache and shaken hands with so many people that he didn’t wonder Arthur’s arm muscles anymore. Honestly, saying hello to that many people had to count as a form of exercise. He also couldn’t understand how anyone expected him to remember all these names after he had heard them once.

“Arthur,” he murmured still holding his fake smile in place. “My arm is going numb. Can we… I don’t know, not introduce me to new people anymore?”

“Don’t whine. You said yourself that you don’t know any people here. Now you know several,” Arthur answered and walked away from him to greet another person.

To be completely honest, Merlin wouldn’t have minded meeting Arthur’s friends or new acquaintances on a less… formal platform. He felt uncomfortable in his suit, he barely understood anything of the conversations Arthur had with other people, and any of the people he had shaken hands with didn’t seem to give a fuck about Merlin. They just cared about him being Arthur’s date for the evening. After they had parted with Uther, Merlin hadn’t had a single interesting conversation.

“I don’t believe we have been introduced,” said a voice behind Merlin, startling him.

Merlin turned around ready to put the fake smile on again, but instead he frowned at the guy who had greeted him. He was definitely magic. Strong magic by the feel of it. Additionally, he seemed to look at Merlin with a disturbing amount of intensity.

“I don’t believe we have,” Merlin said. “Merlin Emrys.”

The guy laughed.

“I know that. My name is Edwin Muirden. I really appreciate the work you do with young sorcerers. I myself found Gaius’ guidance immensely helpful when I was a child.”

Merlin was taken aback but pleased. Finally, here was someone he spoke the same language with. Edwin wasn’t bad looking either, so he glanced back at Arthur, checking that he was still talking business with other people, and then began a conversation with Edwin.

They were just comparing methods of teaching control of magic to young people, and sometimes older people needed to relearn some things as well, when Merlin felt Arthur’s hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, Arthur,” Merlin began and turned to look at Arthur, for once a genuine smile on his lips. But Arthur’s expression was stony. He was definitely not smiling. “What’s wrong?”

Arthur shook his head and adopted a smile. But Merlin could tell from the way his eyes were still burning that he didn’t like Edwin much. Or maybe he just didn’t like Merlin talking with him. Merlin was baffled by the reaction.

“I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Arthur Pendragon, Merlin’s boyfriend,” Arthur said and held up his hand for shaking. Edwin raised his eyebrow in a way that reminded Merlin of Gaius, and took the hand, introducing himself.

To someone who didn’t know Arthur as well as Merlin did, Arthur’s whole act would have looked polite and interested. But Merlin knew Arthur too well to ignore the way he was holding his back straighter, how the way he talked was dripping authority, and how he kept his hands on Merlin all the time while talking to Edwin.

The talk didn’t last very long. Edwin had apparently also read the situation and excused himself soon enough.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Merlin turned to glare at Arthur.

“Was that really necessary? Didn’t we talk about the jealousy already?”

“He was _all over you_. I only agreed to not act on the unfounded jealousy. But that guy was basically eating you with his eyes,” Arthur said. Merlin was trying his best not to start an embarrassing fight in the middle of a room full of people, but Arthur was making it really, really hard for him.

“He was not all over me. He was just being polite. I had probably the most interesting discussion tonight with him,” Merlin said but couldn’t entirely stop himself from blushing.

“Well, he wanted to shag you raw by the looks of it. And nice to know that I’m so boring company that flirting with other people counts as interesting discussion.”

Arthur turned away. Merlin counted to ten and tried to remember why Arthur was his best friend, before going after him.

“That’s really not fair,” Merlin told him, after he had caught Arthur by the elbow. “I like your company, and I know you love your job, but I just really can’t get into business talk the same way you do. I was talking about _my job_ with Edwin, and you should know I love my job too.”

Arthur sighed and turned back towards him. Merlin knew that they had avoided an actual fight for now.

“I know. I’m sorry. But he was totally flirting with you,” Arthur said, before lowering his voice. “I know it’s not my business who you flirt or sleep with or whatever, but since we’re supposed to be dating…”

“Yeah,” Merlin said. “Appearances.”

Arthur nodded.

“Well, how about if we spend some time talking then?” Merlin said. “Since we’re _dating_ and everything?”

Then Merlin grinned.

“I mean, I haven’t spent much time talking to you tonight. It’s a shame, since you _are_ my third favourite Pendragon.”

“ _Third_ favourite?! You can’t honestly like Morgana more than me! You said yourself she’s evil. And you only really met my father _today_.”

Soon they were bickering like little kids. Merlin had enjoyed the discussion with Edwin, but if he had to choose between a conversation with him and banter with Arthur, he would without a doubt choose Arthur.

Merlin hadn’t even noticed that Morgana had found them again. She had to clear he throat very pointedly before either of them acknowledged her.

“Hey, Morgana,” Merlin greeted. Morgana was looking them and clearly wanted to make a comment about something.

“Did you want something, Morgana?” Arthur asked. Merlin was pleased to see that he didn’t even try smiling that horrible fake smile with his sister.

“Not really. I just think everyone in the room can hear you talking even over all the other noise and I wanted to see what’s going on,” Morgana said, smirking.

Merlin blushed but didn’t know what to say to that.

“Seriously, you two. The way you argue it’s amazing that you ever shut your mouths long enough to shag. Or did you just end up kissing for the first time to get each other to shut up?” Morgana said.

“Um,” Merlin made a sound and looked at Arthur for help. Arthur was blushing furiously.

“Actually,” Arthur said. “We haven’t, you know, done much more than kissing yet,” Arthur said. Merlin looked at him and frowned. Arthur just shrugged at him, still looking quite red.

“Okay,” Morgana said and pointedly rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me laugh. There has been so much sexual tension in the air between you two that any waiting wouldn’t even be a _question_. You probably were at it like bunnies as soon as you confessed your very non-platonic feelings for each other, because if you weren’t it would probably had make you both spontaneously combust.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Arthur asked affronted.

“Spontaneous combustion, my dear brother, means a situation where a material produces heat that is unable to escape, and then reaches the ignition point and catches fire. To be honest, I shouldn’t have to even specify how that description applies to the situation between Merlin and you. You have been releasing heat for such a long time it’s a wonder this hasn’t happened before.”

“And you should spend less time reading stuff on Wikipedia,” Arthur answered. “That’s a laughable metaphor.”

“But so very, very true. Ask anyone, I dare you.”

“No, no, I’m pretty sure it’s just you that thinks that,” Arthur said.

“Believe what you will. But I’m still sure you’re dying to get to rip that suit off of Merlin as soon as you get home. I sincerely have no idea why you would even for a second pretend that you haven’t climbed that tree as soon as you got a permission to do so,” Morgana answered him.

“Morgana, can we stop talking about my, uh, _our_ sex life in public? It’s really none of your business, and even less everyone else’s,” Merlin interrupted.

“I’m going to go and talk to some other people now. This discussion is over, I hope,” Arthur said, touching Merlin’s shoulder, and then he was gone.

”You two are ridiculous,” Morgana said when Arthur was outside hearing distance.

“Why do you say that?” Merlin asked.

“You two are dating and _clearly_ in love…” Morgana started, and Merlin tried his best not to let his face show anything that would give away how utterly wrong Morgana was with her statement.

“…and still you do this thing where you pretend you don’t even like each other. You’ve been best friends for _ages_ and you _still_ do that. I’m sure that in your wedding vows you grudgingly admit that it’s not _completely_ horrible to spend the rest of your lives together. You will be old and grey together with grandkids around you and still pretend you just _accidentally_ lived happily ever after.”

Merlin was staring at her and trying to come up with something, _anything_ , to say.

Because it was not that they were a couple pretending they didn’t like each other. It was just the other way around, wasn’t it? Though they were best friends… that pretended not to like each other most of the time.

Oh God. People were taking them dating far more seriously than Merlin had been expecting. First their friends, then Arthur’s dad, and now Morgana was saying this stuff. It was even more worrying since they hadn’t even had to actively pretend to be a couple. More often than not during this evening Merlin had forgotten all about their fake relationship, or would have if Arthur hadn’t been there to remind him of it. Especially Morgana seemed to be convinced that they were destined to spend the rest of their lives together. She sounded more and more like Merlin’s gecko the more she spoke about the subject. It also did not help that she was Arthur’s sister. This would really not end well.

Then Merlin remembered that they hadn’t even seen his mum as a couple yet. If he could survive this until the break up without dying of embarrassment, he could count himself very lucky. This was definitely that last time he said yes to any of Arthur’s completely insane ideas.

\---

“So that went pretty well, I think,” Arthur said when they sat in a taxi on their way home. Arthur had promised to take Merlin home first and then he would continue to his own flat.

“If you say so. At least they all bought it without questions,” Merlin said, still wondering about how everyone had been so ready to believe that they were actually dating.

“Yeah. That’s good though, right? That’s what we were trying to do. Are you alright, Merlin?”

Merlin smiled at him when he heard the worried tone of voice. Arthur really didn’t want to let it show that he was worried that often, but he was like a mother hen most of the time.

“I’m okay. Just tired. All that was a bit much. But I agreed to it and should’ve expected it to be tiring.”

“Right. You haven’t been to these things before. I have gotten so used to them that I’ve almost forgotten how exhausting they can be,” Arthur said, nodding. And then he added, “It’s really not as bad with you there for company though.”

Merlin laughed.

“I’m glad I can bring you some entertainment for the event. Really though. I had fun time, and I wouldn’t say no if you asked me to come again. Just… not for a couple of weeks, please.”

“There might be a party in a few weeks’ time. It’s probably even fancier with more dancing and less eating though. I would like you to come if you want to. And then of course there’s the dinner with father next week,” Arthur said.

“Your father is okay. I don’t mind having dinner with him. Talking with him was probably one of the most interesting parts of the evening,” Merlin admitted. He pointedly didn’t mention talking to Edwin. Or Morgana. Arthur looked surprised.

“I really didn’t expect you to get along that well, to be honest. I would have thought that the,” he moved his hand in the air to imitate doing magic, “would’ve gotten in the way of you two bonding, but apparently not.”

“We both want the best for you. And it’s not like I hate your father. He hasn’t said a word against magic users lately. It’s a big improvement, and I want to give credit where credit is due. I don’t think he actually wants to hurt anyone, even though his opinions are kind of old-fashioned. At least some of them,” Merlin said.

Arthur grinned at him.

“And anyway, I don’t want to miss an opportunity to hear stories about you as a posh little boy.”

Arthur’s smile turned into groan, but then his face brightened again after a moment.

“So when did Hunith want us to visit her, then?” Arthur asked innocently.

It was Merlin’s time to groan.

\---

“Hi, Gaius. How are you?” Merlin asked when he stepped into the small office. Gaius was already writing something on his laptop. He stopped his writing for just long enough to say good morning to Merlin.

Merlin kept a calendar on the wall with all the meetings and deadlines he had. Despite being a powerful sorcerer, his time management skills were appalling. He had his schedule on his computer too, since went to the office maybe two or three times a week and had meetings all over the town, but it was still nice to have something on the wall too.

When Merlin called the place “an office”, he mostly said that for other people’s sake, because an office generally meant a place for work for most people he knew. The place wasn’t really an office though. It was more like a magical living room with a table for both Gaius and Merlin, books all over the place, and even a space where the children who visited them could play in. They had a small meeting room too where they could talk to people who didn’t want to be overheard.

Gaius had stopped writing and took off his glasses.

“I haven’t seen you for a while.”

Merlin bit his lip.

“Yeah. I’ve been working from home. I’ve been…”

“Busy. So I’ve heard,” Gaius said and looked at his searchingly.

“You shouldn’t listen to everything Morgana tells you.”

Gaius had been one of the people who had taught Morgana to control her magic when she was younger. Merlin knew they still kept regular contact with each other, and sometimes Morgana visited the office to meet one of them or just to see how things were going.

“Well, I’ve heard you have a new boyfriend,” Gaius said. “About time if I may add.”

“Can we talk about something else?” Merlin said, embarrassed. He didn’t want to discuss his love life, especially since Gaius’ reaction was exactly what he had been afraid of. Why couldn’t anyone be properly astonished that he and Arthur were supposedly dating?

“Mordred has been asking after you,” Gaius said, changing the subject.

“How is he doing?” Merlin asked. Mordred was one of the children they were training. He had a lot of magic, powerful telepathy abilities, and a lot of control over it for such a young sorcerer. Most of the time Merlin felt that Mordred really could control what he was doing, but he didn’t really want to.

“Better. Morgana saw him the other day when they were visiting at the same time and managed to explain things to him. To be honest, it’s very good to know there is someone who he really listens to,” Gaius said.

Morgana, for some reason, had taken an instant liking to Mordred. The poor boy was an orphan and was raised by a family of magic, so that probably helped too, but Merlin liked to know himself that Mordred was doing better. He had the feeling one could do a lot of bad with a power like Mordred’s if he wouldn’t learn  
to control it properly and understand why he had to control it.

“I should see him soon then,” Merlin said. “What else is new?”

Gaius started to explain about the rest of their, for the lack of a better word, customers. Just the two of them couldn’t really help more than about six people at the same time, with Merlin also being the spokesperson for the magical community, but they managed to help some people at least. Merlin had been thinking that they might try getting another worker, because there certainly was enough work for more than two people and a couple of volunteers. They just didn’t have the funds to hire anyone else at the moment.

Merlin thought that what they really needed was a crisis management worker, and Freya would be perfect candidate for that. Freya was a girl who Merlin had met here when he had still been at school and volunteering on his free time. Freya had been abused for her magic and traumatised, and for some reason Merlin had managed to get her to open up a bit and help her. She had been insistent on never using her magic again, because having it had made her suffer so much, but with Merlin she had learned to appreciate the beautiful aspects of magic too. For a while Merlin felt that she also held romantic feelings towards him, but they had never talked about it. Nowadays, they were very good friends and Freya was doing a lot better. She was once again in control of her magic and using it in her normal life. She also volunteered when she had the time, and she had a wonderful way of helping the people who had been through similar things as herself.

Gaius and Merlin knew mostly in theory what it was to really suffer because of magic. They had lived through times when magic had been mistrusted and magic-users had been almost second-class citizens, but they had never experienced anything like Freya. She would be a really good addition to their team if they could just get enough money to hire her. Gaius was the one with all the medical knowledge, since he had been working as a doctor earlier in his life. Merlin had started by just being his assistant, but had learned in the job, and also he had the kind of power Gaius had never had, so he could understand the people who needed to learn to control powerful magic. But someone to help with the trauma survivors would be good.

Merlin decided to think of it later. Gaius had finished his update on their customers and had gone back to work. Soon the customers would start flowing in, and Merlin had a few phone calls to make too. Before that he should check his email though, so pushing everything else from his mind, he started working.

\---

With all that was going on in Merlin’s life, he barely had time to spend any time with Arthur on their own before Uther’s dinner. Whenever Merlin had a free night they were either hanging out with their friends or Arthur was working and Merlin decided to have an early night. The gecko kept on making weird comments about destiny and paths laying together, but Merlin ignored it most of the time.

He managed to have a brief phone call with his mother only days before the dinner with Uther. Hunith was excited but a little worried that Merlin was going to go, but more than that she wanted to hear about the relationship with Arthur.

At the end of the phone call she asked when they would come to have dinner with her.

“I need to check Arthur’s schedule first,” Merlin told her. “You know he keeps crazy hours. But Sunday should be fine.”

Arthur too agreed on the Sunday when Merlin sent him a message. He also sent Merlin another message about picking him up and helping him get dressed before going to Uther’s on Wednesday.

“But he said it’s informal!” Merlin insisted, when he called Arthur instead of messaging him back.

“It’s more informal than the business dinners. That’s a totally different think. Don’t worry, I won’t make you shop for more clothes yet.”

The _yet_ at the end of the sentence worried Merlin.

By Wednesday he was getting nervous and twitchy again, and Gaius noticed it, but didn’t comment on it.

Dating Arthur really was a lot of work.

\---

Uther’s house was massive and impressive on any standards known to man. Merlin had been to Arthur’s place before, but that was really nothing compared to the manor Uther lived in. Merlin couldn’t help but gape at it when he saw the house.

“Really? You grew up _here_ as a child? No wonder you grew up to be a posh prat,” Merlin said to Arthur as Arthur parked his car. “This place should belong to a member of the royal family or something.”

“Shut up, Merlin. It’s just a house.”

“Yeah, but it’s _huge_ ,” Merlin said as he got out of the car. He looked around the yard. “How much land does your dad own?”

“I don’t know. Enough, I guess,” Arthur said and shrugged.

“But you’re going to inherit all of it someday. Shouldn’t you know these things?” Merlin asked.

“Nah, only half of it. Half of it will belong to Morgana. Shall we go in, then?” Arthur asked and yanked Merlin with him towards the front door.

\---

If the house looked big outside, inside it looked pretty much like a castle. At least to Merlin, who had grown up in a little cottage, which really was just a tiny piece of land compared to this.

“Welcome,” Uther told them when he apparently heard his guests come in. “Dinner will be ready soon, but if you would like a tour of the house before eating, Merlin, we would have just enough time for that.”

“Good evening. I’d love to look at the house closer if you don’t mind showing me places,” Merlin said.

It really was a house full of everything that had been missing in Merlin’s childhood. Merlin could almost imagine servants and household people going through the hallways, and Arthur playing in the empty rooms with Morgana when they were children.

He was shown Arthur’s room. Arthur still sometimes stayed over in the house, even though it was years since he had moved on his own. Morgana had her own room too. Despite them both being in neutral colours and empty with just some books and few personal touches, apparently all the things from their teenage years had been cleaned away, Merlin could have told which was whose with his eyes closed. Especially with his eyes closed, because both of the rooms held a certain aura. Morgana’s room still held traces of anger, resentment, and teenage rebellion. Arthur’s on the other hand felt like it had been taken care of and loved, but it also held a sense of duty and fear. The house itself had a feeling of being loved, but also being too empty for such a small group of people. Now of course it was just Uther, so the aura of neglect and emptiness grew in some parts of the house that were clearly visited less.

They turned a corner, and Merlin saw a wall full of portraits of the people who had been living here before. The first ones were paintings, but the last few decades were photographs of their subjects. Merlin walked along the hallway looking at the pictures. He could sometimes recognise a familiar feature in a face. He couldn’t help but marvel at the thought of having a constant string of earlier generations on display like this. Merlin didn’t even know his own father, so seeing a wall full of Pendragons through the centuries and people who had lived in the house hundreds of years ago, was amazing.

Then at the end of the row, he saw a colour photo of a gorgeous young woman who had exactly Arthur’s eyes and a gentle smile. Normally he would have paid more attention to Uther’s picture that was before it or Arthur’s and Morgana’s that were on the wall after it, but the picture of the woman made Merlin stop and stare at it.

Merlin didn’t even have to ask, because he knew immediately that it had to be Ygraine Pendragon. In the picture, she was hardly older than Arthur was now, and when Merlin looked at the photo longer, he noticed that Arthur had gotten other features from her than his eyes as well. He didn’t dare to look what expression Arthur or Uther were wearing, but he felt Arthur stepping beside him and caught his hand just in case.

Ygraine was smiling widely in the picture, almost laughing, and Merlin could almost catch her energy from the picture itself, although Ygraine had died before Merlin had even been born. Somehow Merlin had always imagined Arthur’s mother as this mystic figure who should only smile like Mona Lisa, full of mystery and secrets. But the openness of Ygraine’s eyes and face threw his slightly off balance. Merlin was sure he would have liked her if she had lived. She looked like someone, who was really easy to like.

Uther cleared his throat after a moment of silence.

“Shall we go on then? The dinner should be ready by now,” he said. He didn’t sound just as collected as normally either, and Merlin assumed that the family didn’t usually visit this hallway unless they had to. Merlin reached out to feel the aura of the place and wasn’t surprised to feel a lot of loneliness and sadness, mixed with all the love the hallway had.

“Sounds good,” Merlin said, turning his gaze away from the photo. “What do we have for dinner?”

\---

When Merlin got to the table, he noticed that there to his surprise weren’t any servants, but that Uther was carrying the dinner on the table with Arthur helping. Merlin tried to come and help too, but Uther told him to sit down since he was a guest.

The food was pretty much what Merlin might’ve had for dinner at Hunith’s place. There was salad, potatoes, fish, and sauce to go with it all. Arthur told him as he sat down that Uther indeed had a servant cooking for him most days, but that he had been cooking dinner for Arthur and Morgana at least once every week when they had been children.

“Father likes cooking. And the food is good. Do you want some wine?” Arthur offered.

Merlin nodded. Uther Pendragon had surprised him once again. He felt that it had to be a Pendragon thing. No one probably ever learned everything of them and would be surprised by them still after years of knowing them.

For a while there was no discussion. Merlin concentrated on the food and thought about the photo of Ygraine. For a moment there was just sounds of cutlery against plates, eating, and drinking.

“So, Merlin. We didn’t really talk about anything personal during the other day, so I would like to know more about you. Where did you say you graduated from?” Uther said finally to break the silence.

The discussion went from there, and although Merlin again found himself avoiding the word magic, he also enjoyed himself. Maybe the wine had to do with him also relaxing more and more towards the end of the dinner.

Clearly Arthur noticed it too, but he seemed pleased that his father and fake boyfriend were getting along, so he didn’t comment on it.

\---

Arthur had had a glass of wine earlier, but had refused a glass of brandy after the meal, since he was driving. Merlin however, took the offered drink. They had just sat down on the sofa when Arthur’s mobile rang.

“Oh shit, sorry. It’s from work. I need to take this,” Arthur said after looking at the screen. He answered the phone and left the room, leaving Merlin alone with Uther.

Merlin tried not to feel awkward in the room he didn’t feel he belonged in. Uther looked completely relaxed with his glass of brandy, but he was home after all. It wasn’t an awkward situation for him.

“I saw you looking at Ygraine’s picture in the other room earlier,” Uther said. “I mean, Arthur’s mother’s.”

Merlin looked at Uther and nodded awkwardly.

“Yeah. I haven’t seen a picture of her before. She looked a lot like him.”

“She did,” Uther said, thoughtfully. “Would you like to see more pictures?”

Merlin blinked in surprise.

“Of course. I just didn’t think you’d want to show me. I understand that it’s quite personal,” Merlin said.

“You’re part of the family now, Merlin. I would like you to see some of the pictures. You should know your share of the family history.”

“Then by all means,” Merlin said awkwardly. He put his glass on the table with Uther’s and followed him into another room.

\---

In that room there were so many bookshelves that in Merlin’s mind it was a kind of library. On the lowest shelf Merlin could see a row of photo albums. Uther took one album out.

“These were all taken when we were expecting Arthur,” Uther said and put the album on the table. He let Merlin step in and turn the pages, and he himself went to stand on the other side of the table.

“She is beautiful,” Merlin said. Ygraine looked positively radiant in the pictures. She was giving out the same energy as in the larger photo in the hallway of Pendragons. There was a dark woman Merlin had never seen in many of the pictures, but Merlin was quite sure he recognised Gaius in one of the group photos. Uther was talking about the pictures while Merlin turned the pages and painted the scenes in Merlin’s mind so vividly that he could almost imagine himself there with them. The dark woman had been Ygraine’s best friend, Nimueh, and Merlin remembered hearing the name before. He should check his information, but he was pretty sure Nimueh had been a sorcerer too. This surprised Merlin a bit, but he didn’t comment on it.

There were pictures of younger Uther too, and Merlin was surprised to see Arthur looking back at him from Uther’s face. He had never realised how much Arthur really got his looks from his father. Uther in the pictures was smiling like Merlin had never seen him smile in real life. It was a happy smile that reached his eyes and not just a polite one.

He blinked away the tears and looked up at the real Uther.

“The one on the next page was taken only one day, before… before Arthur was born,” Uther said quietly, but his voice cracked just a bit. Merlin knew he had been about to say that the picture was taken a day, before his wife, the love of his life, died, and Merlin did his best to hold back the tears that he could feel burning behind his eyelids.

The last picture of the album was of Uther standing alone and holding a baby boy in his arms. Merlin closed the album and wiped a tear from his eye.

“You loved her,” Merlin said, stating the obvious.

“I did,” Uther confirmed and then added more quietly: “I do.”

Merlin wanted to let the tears come. It wasn’t really his grief, but just thinking about what Uther had had to go through… What Arthur had gone through… And at the same time Merlin was thinking about all the horrible things Uther Pendragon had said about magic when Merlin had been just a child. He remembered that Ygraine’s death had something to do with Uther hating magic so much, but Merlin couldn’t remember any of the details.

“Did she die because of magic?” Merlin asked, before he could stop himself. That was it. He had said the word they had both been avoiding in all of their discussions, and now Uther was going to throw him out of the house. And he had every right to do so. It wasn’t Merlin’s business, Arthur’s boyfriend or not. He had already opened his mouth to apologise and tell Uther that he was leaving when Uther surprised him again.

“No,” Uther said instead of getting offended, and Merlin was so surprised he closed his mouth again and looked at Uther. Uther was looking back at him. “You have to understand, Merlin, the times were different. Ygraine always understood magic; Nimueh was a sorcerer, you see.” So Merlin _had_ been right about Nimueh. “I didn’t understand it at all, before Morgana… Well. Magic failed to save Ygraine, because there was nothing to be done, but I blamed all sorcerers for her death for the longest time. Because it failed to save her, I refused to see anything good about any magic or any sorcerer. It was wrong of me to do so, but I’ve been trying to get better.”

“You have been getting better,” Merlin said.

“Thank you, Merlin, but that cannot take away all the horrible things I said and caused for magic users to go through with when I was younger,” Uther said and smiled an unhappy smile. “I blamed the sorcerers for taking away the mother of my son, but I failed to see that in my own hatred I was also removing the father from his life.”

“I grew up with only one parent too. I never knew my father,” Merlin said. “It’s better to grow up with one parent than none at all.”

“I know that very well.”

“If you had to choose between having her back or having Arthur…” Merlin asked, just because once again he couldn’t stop himself.

“I wouldn’t give up Arthur for anything,” Uther said at once. “I love my son and my daughter. Maybe right after he was born I would have chosen differently, but now… I’m an old man, Merlin. I have been living without a wife for a long time. But I still have both my children, and that is a blessing I sometimes think I don’t deserve.”

“I think you deserve it, Uther,” Merlin said, and this time he dared to look into Uther’s eyes. “I grew up being scared of you, but you have grown to be a better man.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realise that my words might actually harm and scare people like that,” Uther said.

“Father? Merlin? Where are you?” Arthur called from outside the room and suddenly the moment was broken. Merlin looked at Uther and gave him back the photo album. Then he called out:

“We’re here, Arthur. In the library.”

“What are you doing here?” Arthur asked, when he stepped in.

“Oh, I just wanted to show Merlin some interesting maps in here. We can go back to the living room now. The dust in here is more than enough to make anyone’s eyes leak,” Uther lied, and Merlin smiled at him behind Arthur’s back.

Somehow Merlin was sure that after that discussion, any conversation with Uther Pendragon was always going to be an easy one. That had taken a lot of courage from both of them, and Merlin was happy it was over, but also that they’d said all of that aloud. Somehow he felt that having said it all had made all the difference in the world for both of them, even when the conversation hadn’t been very long. It was like a poison had been sucked from a wound allowing it to start healing more quickly or a wall had been crashed down between them.

It also was clear for them both that they would never, ever share even one word of that conversation with Arthur or Morgana as long as they lived. It had been just a moment of shared pain between Merlin and Uther, and it was better to be kept that way.

\---

Two meeting the parent dinners during one week could take down basically anyone, but Merlin and Arthur faced meeting Hunith for the first time as a “couple” bravely. After the dinner with Uther Merlin was much more hopeful about this one. Hunith had already met Arthur and liked him. Merlin’s mum was easy to deal with so he did not expect there to be any problems with a nice Sunday dinner.

Except that when Merlin stepped in Hunith’s house and called out to announce that they had arrived safely, the face that greeted Merlin wasn’t Hunith’s. It was Will.

“Hey there,” Will said and took Merlin into a giant bear hug.

“Hi, Will,” Merlin said and hugged Will back. “Um, breathing would be good. Also you probably already broke at least two of my ribs.”

“Don’t whine. I haven’t seen you for _ages_.”

“I’ve been busy!” Merlin said.

“Yeah, busy with the Prince Charming, I hear. Where is he by the way?”

“Parking the car. He should be in any minute.”

As soon as Merlin got the words out, Arthur stepped in the house. Merlin noticed how his eyes flashed when he saw Will, but Merlin gave him a warning look. He knew that Arthur and Will had never gotten along that well, but they both liked Merlin and Hunith, so there was rarely an open confrontation.

“Good afternoon, Will,” Arthur said.

“Hi. Hope you’re treating him well or we will have some words,” Will greeted back and smiled at Arthur.

“Now boys, boys. No fighting in my living room.”

Hunith came out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a towel. He put the towel on the table and hugged Merlin.

“Oh, my boy. How are you?”

“Fine, mum. I didn’t know Will would be here.”

“He came to visit yesterday, and when I told you you’re coming for dinner with Arthur, he wanted to come as well. I hope it’s alright with you?” Hunith said.

“Yeah, of course,” Merlin assured her, though it made Merlin nervous. Will had been his best childhood friend and knew him entirely too well. Acting relationship in front of him _and_ Hunith at the same time would be challenging, because they both had seen what Merlin was like when he really was in love with someone. Well, it had worked so far in front of everyone else, but this was going to be Merlin’s biggest challenge so far.

“How lovely to see you again, Hunith,” Arthur said and went to kiss Hunith on the cheek. Merlin knew Arthur could be charming as hell when he wanted to, but it was also amazing how he could so easily wrap Hunith around his little finger.

“It’s lovely to see you too again, Arthur. I hope you’re well?”

“All the better for being here again,” Arthur said. Merlin raised his eyebrows, and Will noticed him doing it.

“Your boyfriend is a real charmer,” Will commented.

“Yeah, I know,” Merlin sighed. He sat down on the sofa and patted the place next to him. “So how have you been then? I feel like we haven’t talked for ages.”

The best thing about talking with Will was that it was always easy. The bad thing was that he had the ability to make Merlin reveal all his secrets in no time, and Merlin was already pretty bad at keeping secrets. With Will it always felt like they were just continuing the conversation they had had yesterday, even when they hadn’t really seen each other for months. Will had definitely been his best friend when he had been younger, but then when Merlin had gone to university and started doing all the magic things, they had grown apart a bit. The friendship they had had was enough to carry the conversation even now though. It wasn’t that Merlin didn’t like Will or enjoy his company anymore. It was just that they had their own lives which were so different they had difficulties of keeping each other actively involved in them anymore.

Arthur had apparently went to help Hunith or maybe just to keep company to her while she was cooking, because they both had left the room.

“So, how did it happen?” Will asked.

“How did what happen?” Merlin tried to avoid the question though he had a pretty good idea what Will meant.

“You and Prince Charming, of course. Took you long enough to get there.”

“Stop calling him that, Will.”

“What else should I call him? I’ve always said he looks like some kind of Disney prince come to life. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Makes a person look like they’re not even fully human,” Will shrugged.

“Maybe try calling him by his name?” Merlin suggested, still avoiding the question.

“Nah, where’s the fun in that. But you didn’t answer me. How did you finally end up as his, um, _court sorcerer_?” Will said, making the air quotes with his fingers.

“Euphemisms, Will? Really? Aren’t we a bit too old for those?”

“You’re avoiding the question,” Will pointed out.

“Well,” Merlin thought. “I guess it just happened. We ended up at my place after a night out and it just… happened.”

He felt horrible for the lie, but it was the story he had told everyone else, so he had to stick with it.

“No kidding. Was it you or him that made the first move?” Will asked.

“Why does it matter to you so much?”

“Bet it was him. You’ve been half in love with him as long as you’ve known him. You wouldn’t have had the guts to make a move now,” Will said, thoughtfully.

That sounded more like an accusation than Merlin was ready to stomach. He wanted to tell Will everything right then and there and assure him that Merlin had never been in any way in love with Arthur.

This was the problem with talking to Will. He always managed to say things that made Merlin want to reveal the truth just to defend himself.

“What are you on about? I haven’t been half in love with him!”

“Well, you certainly talked about him a lot even before you were dating,” Will said.

“Yeah, because he is my _best friend_. Friends do that, talk about each other, don’t they?”

“Hmmph,” Will snorted. “Yeah, right. Not that much they don’t.”

“Seriously, Will…” Merlin began, but he was interrupted by Arthur sitting on his other side on the sofa. Arthur put his hand on Merlin’s shoulder.

“Your mum wants some help in the kitchen. Or so she said. I think she wants to interview you, since she just did it for me,” Arthur said. Merlin looked at him blankly.

“Oh, nice! Do I get to interrogate the Prince Charming next?” Will said delighted.

“Don’t you dare,” Merlin told him sternly.

“It’s okay. I can handle Will,” Arthur said and pushed Merlin up and towards the kitchen. “Have a fun discussion with Hunith.”

In Merlin’s opinion, Arthur was enjoying this way too much.

“How can I help you, mum?” Merlin asked when he stepped in the kitchen.

“Would you slice those carrots for me? It makes everything so much faster when you’re here.”

Merlin sighed and put a knife into the task with hardly a thought. It was definitely just not for his magical household abilities that mum had wanted him here for, but it was a convenient excuse and he wanted to help mum anyway. He also started putting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher while he was at it.

“I’m so glad to see you being so happy with Arthur,” Hunith said. “I can really see a difference in you when you’re with him or talking about him.”

“Mum…” Merlin began.

“But it’s true! The way he looks at you is wonderful. Though you do look a bit tired. I hope you’re taking care of yourself?”

Merlin decided not to think about any ways Arthur may or may not have been looking at him. Hunith was probably reading too much of it anyway, because she thought they were dating.

“Mum, I’m fine. It’s just been busy at work and with…” Merlin said but didn’t really know how to finish the sentence. He hadn’t been too busy lately; it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. He really couldn’t tell Hunith that worrying about how to break up the fake relationship with his fake boyfriend was draining most of his energy. He had promised Arthur, and even though he wanted to be honest with his mum he couldn’t say that aloud.

“I understand. But your relationship is going well then? Arthur told me about the dinner with Uther. How did that go then? I know you’re not Uther’s biggest fan, Merlin.”

Merlin was happy to have something to talk about that wasn’t directly about his relationship with Arthur, and started to tell Hunith about the dinner. He didn’t talk about Ygraine or the conversation he’d had alone with Uther, but he did make it seem that he and Uther had got over most of their differences during the course of the evening. Merlin could tell Hunith wanted to ask some specific questions from him, but she didn’t interrupt him, so Merlin was happy to ignore it too.

In the end it went a lot better than Merlin would have expected. Will and Arthur hadn’t killed each other and apparently Arthur had even had Will convinced of his feelings towards Merlin. At least Will kept on teasing them both about it for the rest of the evening. Merlin wondered what they had been talking about, but one look at Arthur confirmed that it was unnecessary to ask, because Arthur wouldn’t tell him anything.

At the end of the night, Merlin felt exhausted. He wanted to be alone with Arthur already, because at the moment Arthur was the only person he could spend time with without it turning into a performance. Merlin hated lying to people he loved, and he found it even harder to do it to people he had known his whole life. After the dinner, Merlin was already quite ready to go home, but he didn’t want to insult his mum by leaving so early. So he sat next to Arthur and let him do all the talking while Merlin only sometimes commented on something.

Finally, _finally_ Arthur stood up and said,

“I think we’d better head home, before Merlin falls asleep on the sofa.”

He thanked Hunith for the lovely dinner and kissed her hand. Hunith giggled. Merlin hugged both Hunith and Will and wished them a good night.

When he sat in the car, he let all the air out from his lungs very slowly.

“Rough night?” Arthur asked.

“You have no idea how hard it is to fake _anything_ for my mother _and_ Will. Mum always read me like a book even when I was a kid. I can’t believe we actually managed to convince them.”

“Yeah. What did you talk about with Will?”

“Nothing much. He’s one of the people who thinks we should’ve gotten together a long time ago,” Merlin said and then regretted his words. He didn’t want to make things more awkward with Arthur, since other people were already making it for them.

“Right,” Arthur said and started the car. “I would’ve thought he would disapprove, but apparently not then.”

Merlin wanted again to ask what Arthur had talked with Will, but didn’t.

Hunith didn’t live in the town so the drive to Merlin’s from her house took a little over a half an hour. They talked a little during it, mostly just commenting on the food and talking about everyday things, and Merlin was happy that it didn’t feel awkward at all.

Merlin didn’t say it out loud, but he was quite ready for their fake relationship to end already, though he wasn’t sure what kind of explanations that would bring along.

When Arthur parked the car in front of the building Merlin lived in, Merlin said,

“Hey, I think we should just hang out together some day? I love my mum and Will, but that pretending thing just exhausts me. Could we, I don’t know, just spend time together without all the relationship things at some point?”

Arthur looked at him fondly.

“Yeah. I’d like that. I’ll let you know when I have a free evening.”

“Okay. See you later then. Night,” Merlin said and opened the car door.

“Good night, Merlin.”

\---

Merlin’s pet gecko had a name, Kilgharrah, but Merlin just preferred calling him _the gecko_ , because everyone knew what he was talking about anyway when he mentioned him.

For some reason Kilgharrah also loved flying a lot. Merlin was probably the most powerful sorcerer in the world, but he still used his powers for things like floating his pet gecko around his flat. Arthur had always found it amusing when Merlin insisted that the gecko liked it.

The gecko also just absolutely loved Arthur and Merlin had no idea why.

“I think he loves you more than he loves me,” he complained as Arthur played with the lizard on Merlin’s sofa after the flying lesson.

“Of course he does,” Arthur said smugly.

“I don’t understand it. He hates Will. He bit him once, I think. I mean, we were both younger then, but I’ve been scared to leave the gecko alone with Will since then,” Merlin explained.

“Naturally. Your pet has a good taste on who he likes. Of course _everyone_ likes me,” Arthur said.

“You keep telling yourself that,” Merlin told him.

“I still haven’t heard him talk though. You always say that you have a talking gecko, but I have yet to see any prove of it.”

“That’s because he’s a complete arsehole and doesn’t talk in front of anyone else than me,” Merlin said. “I have tried even filming him talking, but nope, he won’t talk in front of anyone else.”

“Convenient, that,” Arthur muttered. “The gecko is already a cool pet. I have no need for it to also talk.”

“Well, I could bet that as soon as you’re out of the door he won’t be quiet all night again.”

“You know how they say that the pets start to resemble their owners over time?”

“Shut up,” Merlin told him. “Though if that is the case, why doesn’t Aithusa talk at all? Morgana talks plenty.”

Aithusa was Morgana’s white corn snake. Trust Morgana to keep a snake as a pet. Then again Merlin had Kilgharrah, so it was not like he could judge anyone based on their pets. Merlin had tried to have a conversation with Aithusa before, but she just didn’t like to talk. Or maybe Aithusa talked only to Morgana like the gecko only talked to Merlin, although Morgana always said she had never heard her snake talk at all.

“Not everyone can have a magical talking pet, Merlin.”

“No, but I can tell you. Aithusa is at least a bit magical. She definitely has a connection with Morgana, although I don’t know how that works since she doesn’t talk,” Merlin tried to explain. He was sure he had tried to explain the connection between magical pets and their owners to Arthur before, but Arthur just didn’t understand it.

“I should go home now. A long day at work tomorrow,” Arthur said. The gecko understood his words and walked back to Merlin who let the lizard walk up his arm.

“You always have long days at work,” Merlin said.

“I know,” Arthur said and shrugged and got up from the sofa. Merlin put the gecko down and followed Arthur on the front door. “Hopefully, it will get easier sooner. I have time for a lunch tomorrow though. Want to join me?”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Merlin smiled.

“I’ll tell you the time tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure. See you then.”

Arthur smiled at him and left. Merlin went back to the sofa and took the gecko on his lap. Suddenly the flat felt a lot emptier than it had before. Maybe it was just that Merlin had been so used to Arthur’s company lately that it felt odd to be alone with his thoughts for once.

After Arthur had left the gecko also seemed to be upset about something. Maybe it was Arthur leaving or maybe it was once again the fact that he was only a gecko and Aithusa was a snake. The gecko was definitely more often than not upset that he couldn’t breathe fire. Merlin wasn’t sure he even wanted to know why the lizard thought he was somehow a dragon inside. He just did.

“It’s okay. Arthur has to go home for the night. He will be back soon enough,” Merlin soothed the gecko.

“That your and Arthur's path lies together is but the truth,” the gecko announced.

“Right,” Merlin said. “Whatever you say.”

\---

The second time of preparing for one of Arthur’s fancy parties wasn’t as bad as the first, and certainly not as bad as Arthur going through all of his clothes looking for something for him to wear for the dinner with Uther. Merlin was even allowed to wear the same suit he had been wearing the first time, although Morgana said it was just, because Arthur liked seeing Merlin in it. She also warned him that getting to wear the same things twice didn’t mean that she wouldn’t take him shopping again at some point in the future.

Merlin shuddered to even think about it and secretly decided to make sure that time never came. Anyway, they would “break up” with Arthur sooner rather than later, so he wouldn’t be needing more than one suit in the future anyway.

This time around Merlin was even on time and already dressed when Arthur came around to pick him up. Arthur let his eyes wander over Merlin’s body in a way that made Merlin blush, before announcing that he’d do. He still wasn’t entirely sure what the point of all the evening events was anyway; Arthur had tried to explain it to him, but it was announcing something and making speeches about some subject Merlin didn’t completely understand. In the end, Arthur had just rolled his eyes and told him not to worry about it. He wouldn’t be there to make new business contacts anyway, but could use the time just having fun.

It felt like this time Merlin was getting less stares when he stepped into the room with Arthur. Maybe people were getting used to him or maybe this crowd just wasn’t a bunch of gossiping twelve-year-olds like the guests at the previous event clearly had been.

For his happy surprise, Merlin also met some people he already knew. A mother of a child he had once helped came to say hello, and some of Arthur’s business acquaintances also nodded to Merlin when they noticed him. Morgana had been there as well, but Merlin hadn’t seen where she had gone. Arthur was talking to some people again and now wiser than the last time and thinking of his poor arm and cheek muscles, Merlin had wandered off to see what else was in the room.

Room was really not a good word to describe it though, because it definitely had enough room for people to dance in. It was a beautiful room in a beautiful building and even though there were a lot of people, there would have easily been room for twice as many. The music wasn’t too loud, but there were still some people dancing to it. Merlin wondered for a moment if Arthur would like to dance with him at some point. In general sense Merlin was kind of clumsy, but he really liked dancing.

Then Merlin heard Arthur calling his name. He could see him rushing towards him through the crowd in the ballroom, so he raised his arm to tell him he’d heard his voice.

“Merlin, you need to help me,” Arthur said as soon as he stopped in front of Merlin. He was glancing nervously behind himself.

Merlin sighed.

“What is it this time?”

“Sophia is here,” Arthur whispered.

Merlin immediately looked around. He had never understood why Arthur had dated Sophia in the first place, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with her being from a rich family and a suitable girlfriend for the Pendragon heir. In Merlin’s honest opinion, Sophia was a bitch who deserved not even a tiny bit of Arthur ever again. She also had her own share of magical powers. Merlin had suspected before that Sophia might not be over enchanting Arthur into liking her, but Merlin was going to make damn sure that she would never get the chance to get anywhere near Arthur.

Looking around again, Merlin spotted Sophia walking towards them in a stunning dress with a completely fake smile on her face. She was obviously here for Arthur, and Merlin was having none of that.

Merlin looked at Arthur and thought fast.

“Can I kiss you?” Merlin asked. Arthur suddenly looked sharper. Merlin put his hand on his shoulder and another on his neck already.

“What?” Arthur said, looking confused.

“Can I kiss you? For a show obviously. To get rid of her.”

Arthur stared at him and then nodded shortly.

Merlin didn’t need more than that. He pulled Arthur into a kiss and reminded himself that it was all for a show. Arthur’s little sigh when their lips met or his teeth on Merlin’s lower lip didn’t mean anything really. Merlin moved his hand upwards towards Arthur’s hair, and almost immediately Arthur relaxed under his hands and lips and put his own arms around Merlin. The kiss was making Merlin dizzy, but he was sure to give Arthur the best he got. He kept his tongue to himself, because he remembered the whole _no French kissing in front of other people_ discussion, but other than that it was probably one of the best kisses of Merlin’s life. Arthur was answering the kiss with surprising enthusiasm and probably wrinkling the back of Merlin’s suit.

Merlin didn’t even care very much.

He wasn’t sure how long it lasted or when he had closed his eyes, but when he opened them and pulled back from the kiss, Arthur looked dazed and traced the movement of Merlin’s lips with his eyes.

Smugly, Merlin turned to look where he felt Sophia was standing. The kiss had made all his senses, including his magic, extra sensitive, and he could feel the anger coming from Sophia in waves. In turn, Merlin sent a wave of his magic back to meet her and remind her that this man right here was _his_. Sophia shuddered visibly when the wave of magical protectiveness, possessiveness, and jealousy hit her, and she seemed to get the hint and left.

That moment Merlin was grateful that Arthur didn’t have any magic, because he could feel the confusion and amusement of some other magical people in the room. Merlin didn’t really want Arthur to know that he’d just used his own possessive rage to shoo off Sophia, and that he’d not even had to pretend any of it.

“Is she gone?” Arthur mumbled against Merlin’s cheek.

“Oh yeah. She _definitely_ understood the situation,” Merlin said.

“Maybe we should just stay close for the rest of the night just in case she…” Arthur began, but then Morgana was rushing to them. Merlin was honestly astonished that she could rush _anywhere_ in the killer heels and the dress she was wearing, but maybe she was using her own magic for that. Or maybe that was just a girl thing. In any case, Morgana was looking at them both accusingly.

“Well? What happened there?”

“God damnit, Morgana. Can’t a man kiss his boyfriend in peace anymore?” Arthur said, but Morgana waved him to shut up.

“Not _you_. I was talking to Merlin. What was the fucking magical show off about?”

“What magical show off?” Arthur said, turning towards Merlin as well now.

“Sophia,” Merlin said, darkly. “She tried to chase after Arthur, but I think she got the message. Loud and clear.”

“Well, I’d say. I could feel your magic all the way in the other room,” Morgana pointed out. Merlin flushed.

“Sorry. I may have gone a bit overboard with it.”

“I’m not blaming you. Sophia is a fucking harpy. But no more of this _knight in shining armour saving a princess_ stuff tonight, okay? Usually I have to warn _Arthur_ against it, but I swear I could feel the chandelier vibrating for a moment there.”

“Sorry,” Merlin said again. Arthur was looking between them.

“I will go and make sure she’s really gone,” Morgana said. “You two stay here and be good for the rest of the night.”

“Wow, she really doesn’t like her,” Merlin said. He was honestly happy that Morgana was on their side, but now he was feeling a bit ashamed about his overreaction earlier.

“Merlin,” Arthur said, still sounding confused. “What the hell just happened here?”

\---

“You haven’t been completely honest with me,” Arthur said to Merlin as soon as they were on their way back from the party.

“How so? You knew I’m magic,” Merlin said.

“Yeah, of course, but apparently based on what Morgana said, you’re one hell of a sorcerer. More powerful than her anyway. Or Sophia,” Arthur said defiantly.

Merlin raised his chin.

“Sophia isn’t that powerful to begin with.”

“But you are?” Arthur asked.

Merlin sighed.

“Maybe I should show you sometime some of the things that have been written of me. But yeah, basically some people have said they haven’t met a power like mine since… uh, a very long time,” Merlin said. He really couldn’t bring himself to say _since the medieval times_ , because that would just sound like he was boasting about it. It was true that Merlin hadn’t yet met people with similar magic to his. There had to be those people _somewhere_ in the world though. “It’s not a big deal, Arthur.”

“Hey,” Arthur said. “I’m not angry. I just would like to know these things about my bo… fake boyfriend. It’s the kind of thing people know about people they date, right? Also I would sometime like to hear more about your work. I’m always complaining about mine, but I’d like to see what you do at some point too.”

“You really mean that? You want to know what I work with? It’s difficult stuff sometimes, Arthur.”

“Well, what are friends for? Really though, I hope you’re not keeping more secrets from me. It’s alright if you don’t want to come out to everyone as the most powerful sorcerer of the century or whatever, but please do not keep these things from me, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Merlin answered. “Fair enough.”

\---

“Okay, so,” Arthur started in a tone that really didn’t bode well.

Merlin crossed his arms in front of him just in case.

“Umm, you know the party Gwen and Lance are having this Saturday?” Arthur began.

“Yes?” Merlin asked suspicious.

“I know it’s a really big ask, but could we pretend dating for a little while more? Apparently the party is going to be arranged to celebrate the fact that they have gotten engaged,” Arthur explained.

“What? Gwen and Lance are getting married? Wow, it’s about time,” Merlin interrupted and smiled widely. “I should call Gwen and congratulate!”

“You can congratulate her on Saturday, you idiot. They wanted to announce it to everyone there, so please don’t let them know that I told you. Anyway, the thing is…”

Merlin waited.

“Gwen has been really, um, interested in my love life since we broke up.”

“Arthur, you dated Gwen for a week back in university. It’s been _years_.”

“Exactly! She has worried for me never finding anyone since then. So could we please pretend for some time more? I’m pretty sure Lance only proposed after we started fake dating, and I really don’t want to think that it was just because of that. In any case, I don’t want to ruin their celebration and take their spotlight by breaking up _now_ ,” Arthur said, looking miserable.

“Of course I’ll fake date you for a while longer,” Merlin answered after watching Arthur suffer for a moment.

“You will?” Arthur sounded so relieved Merlin wanted to laugh.

“Of course I will. You’re my best friend and it’s not like we don’t spend all our time together anyway.”

“It might mean being affectionate in front of other people again,” Arthur said.

“Yeah. I’m okay with it though. You’re a good kisser.”

“I know.”

Merlin rolled his eyes.

“In any case, I agree. No point in taking the spotlight from Gwen and Lance. Let’s wait until that has settled a bit and everyone is so busy with wedding preparation that they forget to worry about our relationship,” Merlin said.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“Though…” Merlin said. “Then we really have to have another dinner with mum too. She keeps pestering me about bringing you along again.”

“Yeah, okay,” Arthur said. “We can do that.”

\---

From the looks on everyone’s faces when Gwen showed them the engagement ring, Merlin could deduce that their group of friends really was a bunch of horrible gossips. Oh, everyone in the crowd had acted as though they were surprised, but no one had really had a natural reaction to it. The happiness for them was undoubtedly real, but the surprise… not so much. Some people had even gone further and brought gifts for the happy couple.

Merlin heard Gwen mention it to Morgana.

“Oh, everyone is just delighted to hear the news!” Morgana said.

“You told everyone before the party, didn’t you?” Gwen said to her accusingly.

“Not _everybody_. Just some people,” Morgana confessed.

“Right.”

When Arthur had congratulated Lance, Merlin heard Lance ask him when they could be expecting another happy day in their circle of friends. Arthur snorted and told him that he would be marrying Merlin when their dating time would be counted in years instead of weeks. To that Lance just shrugged and said it wouldn’t be too long until that moment then. Merlin couldn’t help wondering why Lance’s own engagement party had somehow ended up being about him and Arthur too.

Later during the evening, when Merlin was feeling a bit tipsy and Gwen seemed to be rather more giggly than usual too, Merlin dared to ask her a question.

“So when did you know he’s the one?”

“You mean when did I know I want to marry Lance?” Gwen said looking thoughtful, but still giggling between words. “I think pretty much as soon as we started dating. We had known each other for a while before that, you know, and it just… clicked.”

Merlin nodded.

“Isn’t that the way with you and Arthur too then?” Gwen asked.

Merlin laughed and tried to keep his tone light despite the weight that the question held.

“I don’t know about that. We’re just taking it one day at the time, you know?” he answered, and she nodded.

“It’s fine, Merlin. But oh my God! I’m going to be married! I’m going to be Mrs. DuLac! Me! Married!” Gwen said and Merlin was happy to get a reason to gush about Gwen’s love life for a moment.

There was a sharp pain whenever he remembered that he should end his agreement with Arthur soon and when he thought that at some point both of them would find other relationships with other people, maybe even end up married to those other people, and their fake relationship would be nothing but another funny memory.

Merlin was truly happy for Gwen and Lance, he really was, but somehow looking at their glowing happiness made his life feel empty.

\---

Hunith adored Arthur.

It was just a fact that Merlin’s mum really liked his fake boyfriend, and Merlin was sure she was already secretly planning their wedding and picking baby names just so she would have some suggestions to make in the future.

That thought didn’t help calm Merlin’s nerves. He had considered telling her to help plan Gwen and Lance’s wedding and come up with names for their eventual babies just to keep her busy and to keep her nose out of Merlin’s relationships.

True, they had already been fake dating weeks with Arthur, long enough for it to come naturally for Merlin, but faking it in front of mum was still different for him. Luckily Will wasn’t at the dinner this time, so he let Arthur and Hunith do most of the talking.

Merlin had briefly wondered if anyone was finding his sudden silences odd, but Merlin just was an appallingly bad liar when one got into it. So he decided to just listen to Arthur make friends with his mum. They had already met before Arthur had been Merlin’s “boyfriend”, but nowadays Merlin was pretty sure Arthur was keeping in contact with her even when Merlin was in no way involved in it.

It sometimes felt like Arthur was making his best to make the eventual break-up as painful as it was possible to be.

After the dinner, Merlin was in the kitchen putting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher (using just a little bit of magic) and thinking about lying to his mother. It shouldn’t have been such a huge deal, but seeing Hunith interact with Arthur in such a natural way made Merlin hope that whenever he would bring a real boyfriend home, they would get along as well as Arthur did with her. Merlin was feeling sad and guilty for it not being real, especially since he got along with Uther surprisingly well too.

It would have been perfect if it had not all been a lie.

Merlin dried his hands on a towel and put on the dishwasher, before going into his mum’s living room. When he stepped in the first thing he saw was Arthur throwing his head back as he laughed at something Hunith had said to him. For a moment, Merlin felt off-balance. For the first time he realised that he didn’t just wish for a real relationship with someone _like_ Arthur. He actually hoped that this thing, this relationship, _with Arthur_ was real. Of course Merlin knew Arthur was a handsome and attractive man, and that he was also fun to spend time with, smart, and interesting. But somehow Merlin had never before thought of Arthur as someone _he could date_ , not even when they had been pretending to do it for weeks and weeks. Suddenly Merlin realised that Will had been right all along. Merlin had been half in love with Arthur for as long as they had known each other, but somehow he had never realised it himself.

He wanted for the relationship to be real. He could easily fully fall in love with Arthur if he let himself fall, and the thought hit him like an avalanche. It wasn’t entirely surprising revelation either. It was as if he had been carrying the seeds of the idea inside himself for a long time, but only now they had started to grow and bloom with the right kind of fertiliser that their fake relationship had provided. The thought of it wasn’t a sharp lightning of pain, but more like a dull ache that started somewhere close to his heart.

He wasn’t really Arthur’s and Arthur wasn’t really his. And he wasn’t sure that what he felt counted as being in love. But he also knew that he would probably spend the rest of his life comparing every guy he ever met again to Arthur. Arthur was kind, brave, and handsome, not to even mention that he was easy to spend time with and without a doubt Merlin’s best friend. That was a hard standard to reach with anyone else.

Now that Merlin was actually letting himself dwell over the thought for the first time, he realised that it wasn’t just that he’d be able to fall in love with Arthur if he let himself. It was more that he feared he probably already had.

“Hey, Merlin, don’t just stand over there. Come see what Hunith has been showing me!” Arthur called out after spotting Merlin lurking in the doorway.

Merlin tried to snap himself out of looking at Arthur’s hair and eyes and body through the new feelings he had discovered. It was really not the right place or time for these thoughts now when Merlin’s mum was in the room, although it really wouldn’t have been the right time no matter who was there. Even if Merlin was alone with Arthur, it wouldn’t have been the right time, because Arthur obviously didn’t feel the same. He would’ve already said something if he had been attracted to Merlin, so really, harvesting any ridiculous crush to his best friend and fake boyfriend was a doomed idea.

It was better to just try to forget it entirely. He had been ignoring it for such a long time that it shouldn’t be hard to continue doing that.

“Oh my God, mum. Don’t tell me you have been showing him my childhood pictures,” Merlin moaned just to turn his thoughts on a more pressing matter, since Arthur was clearly holding one of Hunith’s photo albums.

“Nope, wrong answer,” Arthur said before Hunith could comment. “But teenage pictures are a different thing entirely. You never told me you had a rebellious phase, Merlin.”

Merlin glared at Hunith accusingly and crossed his arms.

“I just thought Arthur should see what you were like when you were younger,” Hunith explained. “On the next page there are some pictures of Merlin with Will when they were going through what I believe they called goth phase, Arthur.”

Merlin rolled his eyes and sat next to Arthur to look at the pictures with them. Arthur looked at him and smiled, before turning back to the photos. After some time, Hunith took the photo album from Arthur to search for a specific picture, and Merlin could feel Arthur wrapping his suddenly free arm around his waist. It was such a natural act that it made Merlin ache from longing.

Even though Merlin knew it was a bad idea to let himself believe even for a moment that this wasn’t fake, he leaned his head on Arthur’s shoulder and pressed his side a little bit closer to Arthur.

\---

After the engagement party and Merlin’s revelation at Hunith’s house, Merlin had been reluctant to spend time with his friends. He was sure his pretences were starting to crack, and he knew he should break off the thing with Arthur _soon_. He wouldn’t be able to fake a relationship with a man who he knew now he probably loved more than he should. But it was harder to do than he had expected, because now, now he actually wanted to continue acting just to get more of Arthur’s kisses and touches even when he knew they were all part of the act and that it was a really bad idea to continue it.

He felt so tired all the time and some part of him felt like crying. Merlin was a brave man, but he dreaded the idea of telling Arthur why they needed to stop pretending right now. Now the least of his concerns was what the other people would say. He was scared of how awkward the confession would make things between them. There were only bad options, and he wanted to avoid them both as long as he could. If Arthur and his friendship would survive that kind of confession, Merlin would have to live the rest of his life with the knowledge that he loved his best friend more than he should and that the feelings weren’t returned. On the other hand, it was even worse to think about living the rest of his life without Arthur. Merlin valued their friendship to ruin it over anything as insignificant as romance.

For now it felt easier to continue faking relationship, even though that too was killing Merlin inside. He tried to smile and laugh as usual with his friends, but his eyes kept on wandering towards Arthur sitting on Morgana’s sofa.

It wasn’t exactly a party, because there was usually some reason for a party. It was only Merlin’s closest friends in Morgana’s living room, drinking wine and eating finger foods, and Merlin felt he should’ve been enjoying himself.

He knew he should be enjoying himself. But somehow the scene just made it hard for him to breathe at all. For the last week or so Merlin had had to make his best efforts to not make anything explode with his magic, because his powers felt like they were getting out of hand too. Maybe he should just read through all the instructions he had ever given all the children he had trained and parents of magical kids, because it felt ridiculous for him to train other people in a thing he was finding so hard at the moment.

He let his gaze wander to Arthur again.

“You love him,” Morgana stated. She had come to him without Merlin noticing and had probably watched him for a while now. Arthur was talking with Lance on the other side of the room and flashed Merlin a smile, apparently feeling their stares across the room.

“Yeah,” Merlin sighed. “Guess I do.”

 _No love confessions_ flashed briefly in his mind, but he really didn’t give a damn at the moment.

“You don’t have to sound so miserable about being in love with your _boyfriend_ , sweetie. I’m sure he feels the same,” Morgana said. Merlin shook his head. Morgana just had no clue, absolutely no idea.

“I mean,” Morgana continued. “He asked you out, didn’t he? That just makes it so obvious, because there’s no way he’d take that risk unless he was very sure of his own feelings. He wouldn’t take the risk of possibly ruining your friendship over something short-term. You’re in it for the long shot.”

“Yeah, if you say so,” Merlin said, only vaguely grasping the meaning of her words. They only made him feel worse. “I’m not feeling too good. Headache, you know. I think I’ll head home. Don’t want to ruin the party.”

Morgana followed him into the hallway and watched him put on his jacket. Apparently Arthur had noticed them leaving and had followed them too, because the next thing Merlin realised was Arthur’s hand on his shoulder, turning him around to face him.

“Are you alright, Merlin?” Arthur asked, his voice full of concern. Merlin tried to smile, but he was doing a really bad job at it.

“I’ll be fine. Thanks for the lovely party, Morgana,” Merlin said and then turned back to Arthur. “I’ll talk to you… tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Arthur said, still clearly worried, but Merlin refused to give any explanations. There was no way he could explain in the hallway of Morgana’s flat that he was upset over the fact that somewhere along the way of their fake dating, he had fallen in love with Arthur.

They were still standing way too close, but as Arthur leaned in to give Merlin a kiss goodbye, Merlin dodged it and went for a brief hug instead.

“Tomorrow,” he said and left Morgana’s flat. Before he slammed the door shut, he heard Arthur ask Morgana,

“What happened? Did I say something?”

Now on top of feeling crap about the stuff in his own head, Merlin also felt bad for worrying his friends. He only now thought about everyone else in the party he hadn’t said goodbye to. He thought about walking home, but he wasn’t feeling quite melodramatic enough. Instead he caught a bus and twenty minutes later was opening his front door. The door leading to his empty, lonely home that at the same time felt peaceful and desolate.

After he dutifully brushed his teeth and changed his clothes, he lay down on his bed, ready to sleep for about a week. From the other side of the room he could hear the gecko move in his tank, and Merlin could swore he heard it say,

“No young man, no matter how great, can know his destiny. Like everyone you must live and learn, Merlin.”

Ignoring the fucking lizard, Merlin fell asleep.

\---

Merlin had been ready to break off the arrangement for days now, but Arthur had insisted that he could not do it before his own birthday party. They were going to be at Arthur’s place, because he had more room for it, and Merlin didn’t really feel like hosting the thing. Arthur however, seemed to be completely at ease with having pretty much all of their friends over.

He also was quite comfortable with giving Merlin the most expensive gifts he had ever gotten from anyone.

“Arthur, you cannot give me a _laptop_ for my birthday,” Merlin argued when he opened the package.

“Why not? You have been complaining about yours being an old piece of rust for months now. I’m allowed to pamper my boyfriend a bit, aren’t I?” Arthur said cheerfully.

Merlin glared at him, and Arthur grinned at him. Arthur had always wanted to buy Merlin expensive gifts, but Merlin never accepted any of them. Now that they were supposed to be boyfriends, Arthur apparently assumed that it would be completely okay to give him whatever the hell he wanted to.

Also Arthur apparently really had taken a liking to kissing Merlin, and Merlin blamed partly himself and the Sophia incident. Before that they had managed perfectly well to go without kissing each other on the mouth once.

During the Sophia incident Merlin hadn’t been aware of his growing feelings towards Arthur though.

It didn’t help to know that all of their friends were watching Arthur leaning closer to him either.

Kissing Arthur was so wonderful and so terrible at the same time. Merlin enjoyed the kisses, because as he had said himself, Arthur was a good kisser. But while it was good, he was also uncomfortable with how the kisses made his heart hammer in his chest and how he wanted to push aside any rules they had agreed on and just let himself get into it. Let Arthur know that Merlin wasn’t doing it just for show. Seeing Arthur lean closer and knowing that it didn’t actually mean anything to him also made the dull ache in Merlin’s chest grow into painful sensation.

It was not that he didn’t want to kiss Arthur.

It was that he didn’t want it like this. He didn’t want to do the whole fake boyfriend thing anymore, because pretending it was real just made it more painful to remember that it wasn’t.

It just made it more painful to see everyone else being happy for him. For _them_ when there was no them. Not really.

After the kiss Merlin excused himself and said he was going to the bathroom. When he came out of the loo, instead of going back to present opening, he went to talk with Lance and Gwaine and hoped that he could avoid Arthur for a while.

“Merlin, are you alright?” Lance asked. “You don’t look too well.”

“Are you having an age crisis?” Gwaine grinned. “I don’t think you’re old enough for that.”

“Nah, I’m fine. So how have you both been lately?” Merlin asked, because he realised he hadn’t really had a chance to talk to either of them for a while. He had been so busy with everything in his own life that he now wanted to hear something that would take his thoughts to something else for a while.

Seriously he was close to snapping if he would have to pretend even for one more minute.

Fortunately, Merlin didn’t see Arthur for an hour or two. It was only when the party was at full swing that Arthur appeared next to Merlin again.

“Hey, you,” Arthur said, and gave Merlin a glass of punch.

“Hi,” Merlin answered. “I think I will go to talk to Morgana for a while.”

“Is something wrong?” Arthur asked, frowning. “Did I do something?”

For a moment Merlin felt bad for making Arthur worry about him. It wasn’t fair to take it out on Arthur. They should just talk it out, and Merlin had himself to blame that they hadn’t done it sooner.

Though what would Merlin even say? _Sorry, I can’t pretend it anymore, because I want it to be true_? That sounded ridiculous in his own head.

Arthur still had a hand on Merlin’s shoulder.

“No, I’m fine. Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Merlin said, now getting more and more annoyed. All the stress and emotional overload was finally catching up with him. He quickly forced his magic back inside himself, because he was sure he’d be doing some pretty impressive (and destructive) magic in a moment if he didn’t keep himself at check.

“Because you’re acting weird? We can get out of here if you don’t feel like having a party. They will understand,” Arthur said.

Merlin sighed.

“No. I don’t want to ruin the party for everyone else. But I really need some space right now. I have some… stuff on my mind.”

“What stuff?” Arthur asked.

“Just things I need to think about.”

Arthur shrugged.

“If you don’t want to tell me, fine. I just thought I should know what’s bothering you,” Arthur said and lowered his voice. “You know, as your perceived boyfriend.”

“I don’t want to do this here, Arthur. I really don’t,” Merlin said. He had a feeling they were now getting some looks even though their argument could barely be heard by the people standing close to them, never mind the ones on the other side of the room.

“Do what?” Arthur insisted and something in Merlin’s head snapped.

“I cannot do this whole fucking pretend thing anymore,” Merlin said and this time he said it out loud. People in the room turned to look at him. “I can’t pretend to be your fucking boyfriend anymore, because it’s killing me inside. I just can’t do this anymore.”

Merlin turned to look at everyone else.

“Thanks for coming. Enjoy the party. I’m going home,” he told them and turned to leave the room. He could hear some people calling after him, but he had to get out. He took his jacket and quickly pulled on his shoes, before running out of the door.

The weather outside was horrible. It was raining and already dark, and Merlin ran towards a bus stop. He knew it was going in the general direction of his home and that was enough for him at the moment. He hopped on the bus and pretended that the wetness on his face was just raindrops when he dried them away.

He had to change the bus twice, before he stood in front of his front door.

When Merlin got inside he just fell on his bed without removing his clothes. He cried until his eyes ached, and somehow it was better than the ache in his heart. He had left Arthur in a sticky situation with all the explaining to do, but at the moment he didn’t even feel bad for doing it.

All he wanted now was to get some sleep. Maybe in the morning he would feel better about it. And if he didn’t, at least being unconscious for a precious few hours would make him forget that he had just lost his temper in a way that had likely cost him his best friend and possibly the love of his life.

\---

It had been a few days since Merlin had broken up from his fake relationship with Arthur, and he had never been more miserable in his life. He had talked on the phone with Gwen and his mother, but hadn’t answered Morgana or anyone else. Gwen and Lance had brought over his presents and stayed a while to keep him company. Fortunately, they hadn’t asked any questions which probably meant that Arthur had already told them all about their pretend romance. Merlin hadn’t touched any of the presents.

He hadn’t heard of Arthur. Not that he had expected to, not after the scene he’d made, but it didn’t help his mood that he felt like he had ruined the best friendship he’d ever had.

Merlin was watching some bad sitcom on the television, and the gecko was sitting on his arm.

“You were wrong you know,” he muttered absent-mindedly to the gecko. “About all the destiny stuff. Arthur hates me.”

“The half cannot truly hate that which makes it whole,” the gecko said.

“Right then,” Merlin said and continued watching the television without taking in anything.

When the doorbell rang, Merlin was sure he had imagined it at first, but then he heard the sound again.

Preparing himself to tell whoever it was to go away, Merlin went to the door. He was expecting to see Gwen or Morgana or maybe Gwaine.

But it was Arthur.

Merlin couldn’t remember the last time Arthur had actually rang the doorbell instead of just coming in. The surprise threw Merlin out of balance just enough that he forgot to slam the door on Arthur’s face.

“Hey,” Arthur said sheepishly. “I wasn’t sure you’d open the door.”

“Why did you ring the doorbell? You have the key,” Merlin asked.

Arthur shrugged.

“Wasn’t sure you’d welcome me. Look, I think we need to talk.”

Merlin sighed.

“Yeah. Come on in then.”

Merlin got into the sitting room just in time to see a gecko tail disappear under the sofa cushions.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Merlin growled and lifted one of the cushions.

“Sheesh, I can go if you…” Arthur said just behind him.

“Not _you_ ,” Merlin said and caught the wriggling lizard between his palms. “I’m talking to this little beast. You’re _not_ listening in on this conversation, buddy.”

Then Merlin went and put the gecko back in the tank. Just in case he even closed the door to the closet where the tank was. He really didn’t need any commentary on whatever conversation they were about to have with Arthur.

Merlin turned around to see Arthur trying not to laugh at him.

“You know, I’m still not sure I believe that your pet lizard really can talk,” he said conversationally.

“Well, that’s because you never have to hear it. I wish I didn’t believe it either,” Merlin said and closed the bedroom door behind himself, shooing Arthur to sit on the sofa.

He turned off the television too.

When Merlin sat next to Arthur on the sofa, Arthur looked at him seriously.

“I’m sorry I took it so far,” Arthur said. “I should have called it off earlier. I just… I guess I was just enjoying myself too much to actually do what I knew to be right.”

He was twisting his hands and looked more nervous than Merlin had ever seen him. Arthur Pendragon was always so sure of himself. He was always collected and never showed emotions like this. He certainly never talked about his feelings. Merlin knew this was the tipping point in their friendship. This was the discussion that would define whether they’d be able to look each other in the eye ever again or would they just become strangers or people who used to know each other once upon a time.

“Look, Arthur, I’m the one who should apologise,” Merlin said because he started to feel he should just get it out. He had been fighting his feelings for weeks and right now he should just put it all on the table, because he might never get another chance to be this honest.

“What do you have to apologise for? I get your anger, and it was totally deserved. I didn’t want it to go that way, but I really understand where you’re coming from,” Arthur stated.

“Yeah, but you see…” Merlin began, and then couldn’t get the rest out.

Arthur was waiting.

Merlin closed his eyes for a moment, trying to look for the right words that would make sense. That would be honest but not scare Arthur away, because if Merlin was being honest to himself, he wouldn’t know what to do without Arthur in his life.

Only now he realised fully how much he needed Arthur. Neither of them had realised it while it was happening, not really, but somehow the damn gecko had been right, and their lives had wrapped together in a way that was impossible to explain if one hadn’t experienced it.

“I really haven’t been honest with you. I could’ve called the thing off, too. I’m not really sorry for shouting at you, because as you said, you deserved it, but I’m sorry because…” Merlin started.

Well, this was it. Arthur was watching at him expectantly, so Merlin just had to say it.

“Because I wanted it to be true,” Merlin said and couldn’t look Arthur in the eye. “I wanted to have the right to get jealous when someone is trying to steal you for themselves. I wanted to kiss you, because I could, not just for a show. After every fake date, I wanted to go home with you. I wanted to _know_ I was going home with you. Everyone except me believed it to be so, and I wanted it to be true more than you can imagine. I wanted… I want you to actually be mine, even when we’re not even in the same room, and I want to have the right to miss you and think about you, and. And I really want to let myself fall in love with you, because I think I kind of already have.”

Merlin thought about what he had just said for a moment, but still didn’t raise his gaze to look at Arthur. He was honestly surprised Arthur was still in the room and expected to hear the sounds of him getting up and walking away any moment now.

But Arthur _was_ still in the room. It was too quiet, and Merlin’s mouth wasn’t taking orders from him, so he was talking again before he even noticed.

“I also forgot to mention that I wanted to get rid of all the stupid rules about French kissing and love confessions. I really wouldn’t have been able to hold on to either if it had gone on for any longer.”

Merlin glanced at Arthur after another moment of silence.

“Please, say something. You’re starting to creep me out.”

“Merlin, you’re a fucking idiot, you know that?” Arthur said and rubbed his forehead. He looked like he was trying to make a decision.

“So you keep telling me,” Merlin said quietly. It really wasn’t encouraging that Arthur was insulting him for falling in love with him.

“Okay, here’s the plan. I’m going to kiss you now, and yes, I’m going to use tongue, and we’ll see where that leads. Then on Friday I’m going to take you on a real date. _Real_ , as opposed to fake. After that we’re going to go back to my place and quite possibly have sex for the whole weekend just to take back lost time on that, and then at some point we’re going to tell everyone that they can stop yelling at me for starting this thing in the first place, because it all turned out fine. And then we’re going to live happily ever after. Sound good?”

Merlin blinked.

“…what?” he said.

Arthur just sighed and leaned closer to him.

“Apparently words are not going through, and I’m _not_ going to keep repeating them until they do, so…”

Arthur placed his hand on Merlin’s neck and kissed him. By now, Merlin had been used to Arthur kissing him wherever he liked, so he instinctively answered the kiss, but it took him a moment to realise that _this kiss_ was different. This was not for a show, and Arthur was _kissing him_ in his own sitting room with no one else here, and it was more tender than Arthur’s kisses had been ever before. And at that point Merlin had to take a hold of Arthur’s hair and his arm, just so he would never have to end the kiss.

Somehow Merlin ended up lying on his back with Arthur on top of him. Arthur was using tongue just like he had promised, and he was pressing his thigh between Merlin’s legs.

Merlin had to pull back just to breathe then.

“So this is real?” Merlin gasped when he actually could draw breath again.

“Shut up, Merlin. And it’s fucking real. You think you were accidentally the first person I thought about when I had to come up with a fake partner to mention to my father?” Arthur said and kissed Merlin’s neck. “If you think I haven’t thought about doing this to you before…”

“You fucking arse. You never said anything,” Merlin said and slapped Arthur on the shoulder. Then he had to interrupt his complaint, because Arthur had just found a really sensitive spot on his neck.

“I thought I told you to shut up,” Arthur said and silenced Merlin again with his mouth.

They were definitely wearing too many clothes, and Merlin wondered briefly how angry Arthur would be if he ripped his shirt. It was probably tailored silk or something like that.

Then Arthur took his hand between Merlin’s legs.

 _Fuck it_ , Merlin thought. He sat up and ripped the shirt open and off Arthur. _Arthur can easily afford another one._

He pulled his own shirt off more gently and kicked off his pants while he was at it. Arthur was sitting on his lap, _right on top of his cock_ , and looking at him like he was something extremely precious. There was a time and a place for gentle and loving sex, but this was definitely not it. Merlin’s whole body was screaming for a quick release _right now_ , and Arthur straddling his lap half-naked and watching him hungrily wasn’t making it any easier.

Well, Merlin wasn’t the most powerful sorcerer of the age for nothing. He snapped his fingers and the next second they were both naked.

“Hey!” Arthur exclaimed.

“Complaints? Really? I think it’s time for you to shut up now, too,” Merlin told him and pulled him on top of him and into a kiss.

Merlin couldn’t decide where he wanted to put his hands, but he knew he wanted to touch every part of Arthur’s body. Arthur had wrapped one hand around both of their cocks and was rubbing them together using precome and spit as lubricant. Merlin felt his focus slide on and off but he still managed to remove Arthur’s hands, whisper a spell that lubed his hand, and wrap the hand where Arthur’s had been just a moment before.

“Holy shit. Merlin, I won’t last long,” Arthur said. He was breathing hard against Merlin’s neck and holding one of his hands on Merlin’s back and one on his buttock.

“Me neither. Just… a little bit… more…” Merlin said, and then he could feel himself coming on their stomachs. It took him a while to orient himself again, but when he managed it, Arthur was lying next to him on the sofa and breathing hard. Merlin waved his hand in the air and cleaned them up.

As far as first times go, it wasn’t perfect. Merlin could feel bruises forming in places he didn’t remember hitting anywhere and it had lasted a pathetically short time and he suspected something had broken inside the sofa, but he didn’t care about any of that. Because Arthur was next to him, sweaty and naked and kind of disgusting, but alive and _here_.

“So that was fun,” Merlin said casually. “Want to do it again in the bed maybe?”

Arthur laughed softly.

“I’m good for now,” he said and brushed some hair up from Merlin’s forehead. And then he kissed Merlin again. “I can’t believe you’re actually letting me do this.”

“I prefer this to the fake version of it,” Merlin said.

“Yeah. Me too,” Arthur sighed and then looked at Merlin sharply. “Listen, I want you to be my boyfriend. For real this time.”

“Yeah. Yes. I can do that.”

Merlin closed his eyes for a moment and just listened to Arthur’s breathing for a while.

“We should really get up and do something else. It’s too early to go to sleep yet,” Merlin mumbled against Arthur’s collarbone.

“Just for a while more,” Arthur said and pulled Merlin tighter against himself.

Merlin could almost hear the gecko laughing at them in the other room, but for once he didn’t mind one bit.

\---

Merlin woke up when the alarm clock of Arthur’s mobile phone rang at half past six the next morning. Arthur had his arms wrapped around Merlin, and he had clearly woken up as well, since he was trying his best to hide himself under blankets and his face into Merlin’s neck.

“I don’t want to go to work,” he complained. “Call them and say that I’m sick.”

Merlin silenced the alert and turned around to face Arthur.

“Now, now, you’re the boss and the son of the big boss. You can’t just stay home in bed with me whenever you feel like it. Besides, I’m going to have to work anyway,” Merlin grinned.

“I hate you,” Arthur muttered and pressed his nose into Merlin’s collarbone.

“Is that a way to talk to your boyfriend?” Merlin asked and lifted Arthur’s face enough to kiss him. Arthur kissed him back but didn’t open his eyes.

“What are you doing tonight?” Merlin asked. They had agreed on a dinner date tomorrow and after that they had the rest of the weekend to themselves, but he was already missing Arthur’s warmth even when he was right here.

“Work,” Arthur said. “It’s the busiest time of the month. We have to finish some graphs, before the stock markets open in Tokyo, so it’s going to be a late night at work for me.”

“Oh,” Merlin said, understanding Arthur’s reluctance to leave the bed. “But it doesn’t mean that you’re going to have to spend the weekend at work too, does it?”

“No, unless something disastrous happens,” Arthur said, opening his eyes. “But there’s always that possibility in my line of work, so I don’t think so. After today it’s going to slow down for a while again.”

Merlin nodded and kissed Arthur again. The kiss turned into lazy making out and then less lazy making out when Arthur flipped Merlin on his back and crawled over him.

“Arthur,” Merlin moaned. “We need to start setting the alarm even earlier if you want to have morning sex. We don’t have time for it.”

“Yeah, we do,” Arthur said. “If we do it while we shower.”

Arthur hopped off the bed and off Merlin and pulled him on his feet.

“Let’s conserve water and save the planet by showering together,” Arthur said and pulled Merlin with him.

“You can’t use serious environmental issues to rationalise having sex,” Merlin complained but followed Arthur anyway.

“Why not? It’s a win-win situation. Now stop wasting time, Merlin. Time is an important resource too, so quit wasting it.”

\---

On Thursday and Friday Merlin actually went for the office to get some work done. He knew that home he would just focus on reliving the night with Arthur and wouldn’t get anything done. To be completely honest, at home he probably would’ve spent most of the day just lying in bed and sniffing the pillow. At office he had at least a chance of getting some work done.

On the other hand, there also weren’t other people bothering him with questions home. There he at least would’ve been alone with his thoughts without everyone asking him why he looked so happy all of a sudden. Merlin had tried to keep all the extra drama in his life away from his work, but despite that he had been working from home since he had broken off the fake relationship with Arthur. Most of the people probably had no idea what was going on in Merlin’s personal life, and Merlin preferred it that way. He had no intention of bringing any of his relationship things here.

Although Gaius and his eyebrow were there of course. Merlin arrived to work on Thursday morning in a terribly good mood and one of the first things he saw was Gaius giving him the eyebrow. When Gaius asked him what made him so happy that particular morning, Merlin just shrugged and gave him a dazzling smile.

“Just a lovely day, I guess,” he told him. Gaius would probably guess it had something to do with Arthur, but since Gaius was far better at keeping secrets to himself than any other person Merlin knew, Merlin didn’t even mind him making guesses about it.

“So what do we have on the table today?” Merlin asked, and they started to go through the cases in very routine and comforting way.

\---

Thursday evening Arthur called Merlin to rant about work.

“Maybe you should do something if you’re stressed all the time,” Merlin told him. “Get another job? Or maybe start your own business. I know you’d be able to do that.”

“I’ll think about it,” Arthur said and sighed. “So how was your day?”

They talked for a while and Merlin was surprised how little had actually changed in their interaction. They might’ve had that particular phone call before they had ever even thought about fake dating. It was just so _them_ that Merlin felt a warmth spreading in his whole body. It was just like it had always been between them.

The only change came at the end of the call.

“I should go and get some more done now,” Arthur said. “I miss you.”

Merlin was so surprised by that small confession that betrayed how their relationship had changed in the last 24 hours that he almost forgot to say it back.

“I miss you too,” he said in the end. “See you tomorrow though, yeah?”

“Yes. Tomorrow. Goodnight, Merlin.”

“Night, Arthur.”

\---

Merlin was wearing a dark blue button-up and trousers when Arthur came to pick him up. He heard Arthur open the door and come in when Merlin was trying to find some socks and just shouted out that he was in the bedroom.

“I’ll be ready in a minute,” Merlin said, turning to face Arthur. “I just need to…”

Arthur was staring at him appreciatively. Then he seemed to snap out of his haze and stepped closer to Merlin. Before Merlin could do anything else, Arthur had turned them around and pressed Merlin against a wall.

“Change of plans. I’m just going to have you for dinner,” Arthur said and kissed Merlin. There were some minutes of frantic making out, but finally Merlin pushed Arthur back.

“No. We’re going to act like adults about this and have a proper date, _before_ we can spend the rest of the weekend doing whatever. We’re not teenagers anymore, Arthur,” Merlin laughed.

“Spoilsport,” Arthur whined.

“You know you love me,” Merlin said and picked the socks from the floor where he had dropped them.

“I do,” Arthur said, and that almost made Merlin drop the socks again.

“What?”

“You use that word quite a lot. I said I do love you,” Arthur smirked. Merlin just looked at him.

“Okay, screw dinner. Let’s just stay here,” he said after a moment, ready to just jump Arthur, and hear those words muttered to his ear when they were a little less dressed.

“Nope. You said it yourself. Dinner first and then we can do whatever,” Arthur grinned. “You can think of it as foreplay. Now put the socks on and let’s go or we’re going to be late for the reservation in the restaurant.”

\---

During the dinner Merlin felt happier and more relaxed that he had done for a long time. Some of the feelings were due to him now actually being Arthur Pendragon’s date, but most of it was just because he felt he had gotten his best friend back. He hadn’t even been aware how much he had missed just talking to Arthur during the few last weeks. Merlin couldn’t remember the last time he had been this comfortable with anyone.

He also had his ability to talk and enjoy food back. Arthur had noticed it too, because he kept smiling fondly at him at random intervals.

“What?” Merlin asked once or twice during their meal.

“Nothing. Just happy to hear your voice again. Don’t worry. By the time we get home I’m probably going to be telling you to shut up again, but… you know. I haven’t heard you talk this much for weeks.”

Merlin shrugged and concentrated on eating for a while. Then he remembered something else he wanted to talk about with Arthur, so the silence was broken again.

When they got back to Arthur’s place, Merlin felt sleepy. He brushed his teeth and let Arthur help him out of his clothes. It was late and they were both tired, but somehow when they went to bed they still managed to do some lazy kissing and grinding. Afterwards Merlin felt Arthur wipe them both clean and heard him turn off the bedside light. Arthur wrapped one arm around Merlin and it might’ve been a dream, but Merlin thought he heard Arthur murmur the love confession to his ear again, before he fell asleep.

\---

Merlin woke up happier than he had for a long while. Somehow Arthur’s bed felt a lot fluffier and softer than his own, but Arthur’s arms around him had a lot more to do with Merlin’s happiness than his blankets or bedsheets. It was Saturday, and he had absolutely no place in the world where he’d rather be at the moment, and nothing could make him get up from this bed if it only depended on him.

Well, maybe going to loo might.

Merlin got up from the bed and went to the bathroom. After he was done with his business and had washed his hands, he also brushed his teeth to get rid of the morning breath. He hadn’t bothered to put on any clothes for any of it, because what would be the point of that? He planned on getting rid of all clothes as soon as they both were awake enough anyway. He walked back to the bedroom quietly, expecting Arthur to still be asleep.

“Merlin, come back to bed. I’m cold,” Arthur mumbled from under the sheets and raised one corner of the blanket to make sure Merlin understood his point.

Merlin huffed but did as he was told. He kissed Arthur briefly, but didn’t linger, since he was still hoping to catch some more sleep.

When Merlin woke up second time, Arthur wasn’t in the bed. He could hear sounds from the bathroom though, so he sat up on the bed and stretched. He checked his mobile for any important messages or missed calls, and ended up reading some random discussion someone had tagged him on Facebook.

“Hey, sleepyhead. Breakfast,” Arthur said stepping into the bedroom with a tray full of food.

“You ordered us breakfast?” Merlin said and put away his phone.

“Well, it was either that or make it myself. I thought this would be more romantic than burnt toast,” Arthur said and blushed.

“Thank you. I think I’ve never had breakfast in bed before,” Merlin said and then thought about it. “Or maybe I have when I was ill as a child. But that doesn’t count.”

Arthur gave the tray to Merlin while he sat on the bed next to him and pushed his feet under the blanket.

“Good morning,” Merlin said and leaned to kiss him.

“Mmm, same to you,” Arthur said.

They had only finished eating, put the tray away, and things were just getting interesting with Merlin sitting on Arthur’s thighs and Arthur’s hands moving on his lower back, when Merlin’s phone rang.

He sighed and reached for it.

“Morgana,” Merlin said, looking at the screen. Arthur grimaced and then shrugged.

Merlin answered the phone.

“Hey, Morgana,” Merlin said. “Look, I’m a bit busy, so you might want to keep it short.”

Morgana started to talk what sounded like a really long story, and Merlin really didn’t give a damn about what she was saying. He made a supportive sound every once in a while, but all he wanted was to just end the phone call and get back to kissing Arthur. Arthur’s face was getting darker too, the longer the call went on.

“Merlin, are you listening to me?” Morgana said, sounding annoyed.

“Yeah, of course I’m listening. Just, as I said, I’m a bit busy, and…” Merlin started, but Arthur caught the phone from his hand.

“Now here’s the deal, witch. Merlin and I have plans for the weekend, and they include a lot of sex and cuddling and take-away food. And no, you can’t borrow Merlin. Call him sometime next week, because he’s going to be very, very busy until then. Now could you kindly fuck off, so I can go back to fucking my boyfriend?” Arthur said. “And yeah, it’s real this time.”

And then he pressed the screen to end the call.

“You know, I almost miss the times when I could actually hang up by just slamming the phone receiver down. It just doesn’t have the same effect anymore,” Arthur said and put Merlin’s phone away. “Oh, by the way, you’d better put it on silent just so we won’t be interrupted again.”

Arthur reached for his own phone to put that one on silent as well. Merlin raised his eyebrows.

“What about any disasters at work? How will they reach you if they can’t call you?” Merlin asked teasingly.

“They are adults. They can figure out something without their boss holding their hands through every little thing,” Arthur said calmly. “It’s my weekend off. Now where were we?”

And there wasn’t much talking after that.

Afterwards when Merlin was dozing off in post-coital haze, he reached for his phone again. Arthur had been right when he had told him to put it on silent, because he had a bunch off missed calls and messages waiting for him again. The only one he read though, was the one from his mother.

_Hi, darling. I’m so happy for you both. Any chance of seeing you and Arthur here for a Sunday dinner tomorrow?_

He smiled and looked at sleeping Arthur, before he settled down against him again.

It might’ve been telepathy or it might’ve been a dream, but Merlin could have sworn he heard the gecko tell him,

“You know, young warlock, this is not the end. It is the beginning.”

He ignored the gecko’s voice, just like he always did, and fell back to sleep.

-fin-

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are everything to me.


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